Bacterial mechanosensitive channels as novel targets for antibacterial agents

Funded Activity Summary

The focus of this research is the development of new antibiotics to combat bacterial antibiotic resistance. Since their discovery antibiotics have had a profound effect on the health and well being of mankind, providing ready effective treatment for otherwise intractable infections. Although pencillin was initially effective against a large range of infections by the 1950s it was apparent that some bacterial strains had become resistant to this antibiotic. Partially in response to this resistance new antibiotics such as streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline were developed. These new drugs were potent against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. However, there were early signs that resistance to these drugs was also emerging. For example, in 1953, during a Shigella outbreak in Japan, a strain of the dysentery bacillus was isolated which was multi-drug resistant, exhibiting resistance to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, streptomycin and the sulfanilamides. Multidrug-resistance in pathogenic strains of bacteria has in the last decade presented an increasing problem in treatment of bacterial infections and diseases. In 1994 a Melbourne public hospital reported a new antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria. This bacterium was resistant to vancomycin (the antibiotic used when all others have failed) and is known as VRE or vancomycin resistant enterococcus. Now strains of golden staph resistant to all antibiotics have appeared. The re-emergence of tuberculosis (TB), which kills more than 3 million people annually and which is spreading rapidly throughout the world, is also a serious threat, particularly as many strains are now multi-drug resistant. New antibiotics are needed that overcome bacterial drug resistance. It is anticipated that this research will lead to new antibiotics by exploiting molecular components of bacteria that have only recently been identified.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2005

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $424,500.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Clostridium perfrigens (wound infections, food poisoning) | H. infuenzae (otitis media, meningitis, septic arthritis) | Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis) | antibiotic development | antibiotic resistance | computational chemistry | drug design | ion channels, patch clamp | pathogenic bacterial infection | structural biology, electron spin resonance, crystallography

Related Links