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Tag Archives: Antibiotic

New “Trojan-horse” antibiotic will help with bacterial disease treatment

Scientists from Skoltech and Institute of Gene Biology (Russian Academy of Sciences) in collaboration with their colleagues from Belgium, led by Skoltech Professor Kostantin Severinov, have described a new antibiotic that destroys bacterial cells using a Trojan-horse mechanism. The new substance was found in bacteria Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. New antibiotic is able to inhibit protein synthesis in bacterial cells and it has a few advantages over “Trojan-horses” previously studied. This study gives a new insight for the future development of novel-antibiotics.

Konstantin Severinov, head of the study, the director of Skoltech Center for Data Intensive Medicine and Biotechnology: “The focus of the new publication is a new antibiotic produced by bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens that was first predicted by means of bioinformatics. Like microcin C, studied in our group before, the new compound acts through a Trojan-horse mechanism but has a unique chemical structure that allows the new drug to inhibit growth of cells that have acquired resistance to microcin C. These findings highlight the importance of DNA sequence mining for uncovering novel bioactive compounds and may lead to development of new antibacterial drugs in the future.”

new-antibiotics-severinov

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems in modern healthcare. Unfortunately, old antibiotics often become less effective against many bacteria. That’s why scientists actively perform new antibiotics search. One of such antibiotic is microcin C, a prototypical Trojan-horse antibiotic produced by some bacteria commonly found in the gut. Microcin C is an adenylated peptide, with the peptide component ensuring access of a toxic “warhead” to sensitive cells. Upon entry, the peptide is destroyed, releasing the “warhead” that inhibits protein synthesis and preventing bacterial growth.

 The focus of this publication is a new Trojan-horse antibiotic produced by a soil bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. This new compound obtains several striking features, which set it apart from microcin C. The most important feature that it’s mechanism of action has few specific modifications that reduce the probability of the antibiotic resistance development.

Recently published work by researchers and Skoltech students from the laboratory of Professor Severinov expands the repertoire of antibiotics produced by bacteria. These findings lend themselves to the future development of novel-antibiotics, which may find inspiration in these natural mechanisms.

The results of the work were published in prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society .

Contact information:
Skoltech Communications
+7 (495) 280 14 81

Using urine samples to diagnose disease in preterm newborns

An interview with Skoltech Professor Evgeny Nikolaev, conducted by April Cashin-Garbutt, MA (Cantab), originally published on news-medical.net.

Which respiratory pathologies are preterm newborns at risk of, and how have these conditions traditionally been tested for?

The majority of patients in neonatal intensive care units are premature babies, who often have infectious (congenital pneumonia) or noninfectious (tachypnea, infant respiratory distress syndrome) respiratory pathologies.

Routine clinical and laboratory tests are not always good for fast and accurate identification of pathogens. Also, the invasiveness of examination and therapy methods is a serious problem for the intensive care and nursing of premature infants.

Left to right - Head of team Prof. Evgeny Nikovaev, Anna Bugrova, Olga Kechko, senior fellow Alexey Kononikhin

Left to right – Head of team Prof. Evgeny Nikovaev, Anna Bugrova, Olga Kechko, senior fellow Alexey Kononikhin

Why is it important to determine whether an infection or a failure in the development process is the underlying cause of the illness?

Identifying the cause of respiratory pathologies in preterm infants and providing them with the adequate treatment is crucial for nursing them back to health.

In particular, it is important to differentiate between the infectious and the noninfectious respiratory disorders, since the former require antibiotic treatment.

What sparked your research into the possibility of using urine samples for diagnosis?

Urine is a desirable material for the study and diagnostics of diseases. The urinary proteome of adults has been studied for more than 30 years, but studies of the urinary proteome in pediatrics, especially in neonatology, are limited.

It is worth noting that, to the best of our knowledge the urine proteome during the first week of life of premature infants with respiratory pathologies of infectious and noninfectious origin was not yet investigated.

How much information can be gained from the urinary proteome?

Urine contains proteins that are readily detectable in all studied individuals (adults, children, infants), also known as the core urine proteome, and infant-specific and disease-specific proteins.

In order to further specify the defined infant-specific dataset, the proteins were compared with the urinary proteome of healthy adults (men and pregnant women).

Which techniques did you use to determine whether respiratory pathologies were infectious or noninfectious?

Here we apply liquid chromatography coupled with high accuracy mass spectrometry to study the urine proteome of preterm neonates with respiratory disorders of infectious (pneumonia) and noninfectious (apnea, transient tachypnea, respiratory distress syndrome) origins.

Label-free proteomic data was compared for preterm neonates with respiratory disorders against term healthy newborns (control) and healthy adults (men and women) with the aim of defining the urine proteins that are disease-specific.

baby

Why have studies of the urinary proteome in pediatrics, and in particular neonatology, been limited in the past?

New technologies are currently being developed rapidly and implemented at the clinic, including its newly established labs.

The major setback for the research of that kind, promising as it may be, has to do with the ethical issues. Nevertheless, a few studies were performed, and potential biomarkers in the urine samples of infants were demonstrated for predicting such pathologies as obstructive nephropathy and necrotizing enterocolitis and for monitoring the development of the urinary system.

What impact do you think this research will have?

In our pilot study, we succeeded in defining the core urinary proteome and the proteins that are specific to infants and pathological conditions. We are pioneers in the noninvasive identification of urinary biomarkers diagnosing respiratory conditions in newborns. The results are optimistic and will serve as a platform to move forward in developing a method of monitoring conditions in newborns.

What are the next steps for your research?

Verification of our results requires further research with a bigger sampling group and the inclusion of additional comparison groups to assess the specificity and diagnostic value of the presented panel of proteins.

Where can readers find more information?

The findings have been published in the Journal of Proteomics.

Contact information:
Skoltech Communications
+7 (495) 280 14 81

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