Antimicrobial therapy for bacterial infections

Abstract

The disclosure provides a molecular genetic approach of targeted mutagenesis and heterologous expression, coupled with in vitro and in vivo models of bacterial pathogenesis, to demonstrate that the S. aureus pigment is a virulence factor and potential novel target for antimicrobial therapy.

Description

[0001] Related Application Cross Reference [0002] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 over U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 672,359, filed April 18, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Statement on Government Funded Research [0003] This invention is made in part with the benefit of Grant No. AI048694 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government may have certain rights in this invention. technical field [0004] The present invention pertains to a molecular genetics approach for directed mutagenesis and heterologous expression and in vitro and in vivo models of bacterial pathogenesis to elucidate S. aureus pigments as virulence agents and potential novel targets for antimicrobial therapy . Background technique [0005] Ogston (1881) coined the genus Staphylococcus to describe clusters of grape-like bacteria (staphylo = grape, Gr.) and obtained Staphylococcus from surgical abscesses. Shortly thereafte...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Third, commonly used therapies impose a "life or death" challenge on the bacteria, which are therefore under strong selective pressure to develop resistance against the antimicrobial agent

[0010] Such as linezolid (Zyvox) or quinupristin / dalfopristin (Synercid) (both utilize traditional targets to inhibit RNA synthesis by binding to ribosomal subunits) and other novel anti-MRSA agents are quite expensive

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