High-res structural insights into a crucial bacterial enzyme have been gained by researchers from all over the world, including those from Trinity College Dublin. These findings may aid chemists in developing new drugs that will inhibit the enzyme and thereby suppress disease-causing bacteria. Their work is crucial because concerns about rising rates of antibiotic resistance are still growing.
In order to” look under the bacterial bonnet” and create a molecular blueprint of the full-length enzyme that could be used to design drugs that attack any structural weaknesses, the researchers, led by Martin Caffrey, Fellow Emeritus at Trinity’s School of Medicine and School for Biochemistry and Immunology, used next-generation X-ray crystallography and single particle cryo-electron microscopy techniques.
The enzyme Lnt is of enormous potential significance as a therapeutic target because it is not present in humans; rather,