title: Glycopeptide resistance: Links with inorganic phosphate metabolism and cell envelope stress.
abstract: Antimicrobial resistance is a critical health issue today. Many pathogens have become resistant to many or all available antibiotics and limited new antibiotics are in the pipeline. Glycopeptides are used as a 'last resort' antibiotic treatment for many bacterial infections, but worryingly, glycopeptide resistance has spread to very important pathogens such as Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus. Bacteria confront multiple stresses in their natural environments, including nutritional starvation and the action of cell-wall stressing agents. These stresses impact bacterial susceptibility to different antimicrobials. This article aims to review the links between glycopeptide resistance and different stresses, especially those related with cell-wall biosynthesis and inorganic phosphate metabolism, and to discuss promising alternatives to classical antibiotics to avoid the problem of antimicrobial resistance.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Medical School, Newcastle University, NE2 4AX Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Santos-Beneit
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ordóñez-Robles
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Area, Department of Molecular Biology, University of León, 24071 León, Spain. Electronic address: jf.martin@unileon.es.
authors.forename: Juan F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Martín
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006020:Glycopeptides / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D010710:Phosphates / Q000378:metabolism*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D006020:Glycopeptides; D010710:Phosphates
keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Cell-wall stress; Inorganic phosphate; PhoR/PhoP; VanR/VanS; Vancomycin