β-lactam antibiotics work by preventing cell wall growth, but exactly how they kill has remained a mystery until now.
Professor Simon Foster, from the University of Sheffield’s School of Biosciences, said: “Penicillin and other antibiotics in its class have been a centrepiece of human healthcare for over 80 years and have saved over 200 million lives. However, their use is severely threatened by the global spread of antimicrobial resistance.
“Concentrating on the superbug MRSA, our research revealed that the antibiotics lead to the formation of small holes that span the cell wall that gradually enlarge as part of growth-associated processes, eventually killing the bacteria. We also identified some of the enzymes that are involved in making the holes.
“Our findings get to the heart of understanding how existing antibiotics work and give us new avenues for further treatment developments in the face of the global pandemic of antimicrobial resistance.”
Using this knowledge and an understanding of how the enzymes are controlled, the scientists also showed the efficacy of a novel combination therapy against S. aureus.
The team worked with a model for how the bacterial cell wall expands during growth and division and established a hypothesis for what happens when this is inhibited by antibiotics like penicillin. High resolution atomic force microscopy was used.
Source: Medindia
