Finding New Targets for Antibiotic Drugs
Author Information
Author(s): Thomas A. White, Douglas B. Kell
Primary Institution: University of York and UMIST
Hypothesis
Identifying novel broad-spectrum targets for antibacterial drugs through comparative genomics.
Conclusion
The study identified tRNA methyltransferase (trmD) and translation initiation factor IF-1 (infA) as promising new targets for antibiotic development.
Supporting Evidence
- The scoring strategy used might be of value in other areas of post-genomic drug discovery.
- Sensitivity analysis indicated the quantitative contribution of each metric to the overall score.
- A number of proteins proved to score highly in all three species and were robust to variations in the scoring system.
Takeaway
Scientists are looking for new ways to fight bacteria by finding new targets in their genes that antibiotics can attack.
Methodology
The study used comparative genomics to assess protein sequences from three pathogens and ranked them based on criteria like essentiality and conservation.
Limitations
The study does not account for the ease of developing assays for the identified targets.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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