A New Target for Antibiotic Development

摘要

The discovery and clinical development of penicillin ushered in the modern antibiotic era and stimulated the discovery of the antibiotics in current clinical use. Some 80 years after their discovery, penicillins and related antibiotics (collectively called β-lactams) remain clinically useful. Nevertheless, the remarkable ability of bacteria to develop resistance to β-lactam and other antibiotics means that there is a continued need for new antibiotic targets and new antimicrobial agents. On page 1402 of this issue, Levering et al.(1) report the crystal structure of a bifunctional bacterial membrane protein that provides target sites not only for β-lactams but also for new antibiotics.