CIQUS´ researchers have published some keys to "starve" bacterias that cause tuberculosis and stomach cancer.
An article by a research group belonging to the CIQUS which is led by Professor Concepción González-Bello (www.gonzalezbello.com) has been selected as the cover of the latest issue of the journal ACS Chemical Biology. This work (ACS Chem. Biol. 2013, 8, 568–577) describes the keys to "starve" a crucial enzyme in the proliferation of two important pathogenic bacteria: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis, and Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of gastric and duodenal ulcer (and promoter of stomach cancer).
The prevalence of tuberculosis and Helicobacter pylori infections, together with the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, are leading great interest (in both academia and industry areas) in the development of more effective strategies to combat bacterial infections.
This research group has devised a way to "trick" the bacteria: preventing the regular operation of one of the enzymes they need to survive. To this end, compounds were designed with a very similar structure to those used by the bacteria and, therefore, avoiding a normal function. This method prevents the production of essential nutrients for the life of the bacteria, which eventually starve to death.
A great advantage of this "trick" is that animals do not possess this enzyme, so the researchers hope that these compounds could have not harmful effects on humans. Furthermore, thanks to the strategy adopted, it would be very difficult that the bacteria become resistant to antibiotics
For the design of the compounds, the research group uses various computer programs that allow knowing in advance the effect of the compounds on the enzyme. This facilitates the selection of those compounds that would be most effective, to then prepared in the laboratory and test them with the enzyme.
The research group also managed to obtain useful data, through X-ray techniques, about various structures interacting with the enzyme, which is a kind of a photograph at the atomic level. This has demonstrated the initial idea and thus continues the optimization process with such compounds.
From left to right: Concepción González Bello, José M. Otero, Emilio Lence, Lorena Tizón y Antonio Peón.
