title: Potential Antibacterial Targets in Bacterial Central Metabolism.
abstract: The emerging antibiotic resistant bacteria and their abilities for rapid evolution have pushed the need to explore alternative antibiotics less prone to drug resistance. In this study, we employed methicillin/multidrug-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) as a model bacterial system to initiate novel antibiotic development. Anin silicoidentification of drug targets inMRSA252 strain andMRSAMu50 strain respectively was described. The identified potential targets were classified according to their known or putative functions. We discovered that a class of essential non-human homologous, central metabolic enzymes falls into the scope of potential drug targets for two reasons: 1) the identified targets either do not have human counterparts or use alternative catalytic mechanisms. Based on major differences in active site structure and catalytic mechanism, an inhibitor of such a bacterial enzyme can be designed which will not inhibit its human cousin. 2) attacking bacterial energy-making machinery bypasses the usual drug resistance sites, paving the road to multi-faceted approaches to combat antibiotic resistance.
authors.affiliation: Division of Natural Sciences Mount Marty College 1105 W 8th St. Yankton, the United States.
authors.forename: Nichole Louise
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Haag
authors.forename: Kimberly Kay
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Velk
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: Methicillin/multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; antibiotic resistance; central metabolism; drug targets; essential genes