The Technology
New antibiotics are a necessity in today’s modern medicine due to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria. There are many attempts at providing new antibiotic drugs by either modification of existing drugs or by finding new drug targets and designing applicable inhibitors. The ribosome remains the target for over 50% of antibiotics. Most of these compounds bind to sites within the ribosome. There are, however, very few compounds that target the peptide exit tunnel. The advantage of this target is that its function cannot be replaced by other cellular functions and it is protected from outside interactions. Bioinformatics, biochemistry and molecular biology techniques detected under-represented, short peptide sequences which are rarely present or totally excluded from the cell, and expression of these sequences lead to reduction in ribosomal activity, via interfering with the ribosome exit tunnel – leading to ribosomal stalling, and to protein synthesis inhibition followed by cell damage or death. This short peptide anti-microbial platform, can lead to novel antibiotics that can overcome resistance.
Advantages
- Unique mode of action operating against antibiotics-resistant bacteria
- Can be easily modified to prevent the appearance of resistant strains
Applications and Opportunities
- Development of a novel family of antibiotics
Business Development Contacts