BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Infectious DISEASE

November 30, 2016 2:12 PM UTC

Cell culture studies suggest inhibiting the interaction between oxa23 and carO, ompA and other outer membrane porins could help treat multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii infection. In a cultured MDR strain of A. baumannii, transposon insertion-mediated knockdown of oxa23 or the oxa23-binding outer membrane porins carO or ompA increased sensitivity to Meropen meropenem and the generic β-lactam antibiotic imipenem compared with normal expression of the genes. In a cultured A. baumannii oxa23-knockout strain, expression of a mutant form of oxa23 predicted to disrupt the interaction between oxa23 and carO, ompA and two other outer membrane porins increased sensitivity to Meropen and imipenem compared with expression of wild type oxa23. Next steps include identifying and testing binding sites and inhibitors of the interactions between oxa23 and outer membrane porins...