Researchers at MIT have developed a water-soluble version of the bacterial enzyme histidine kinase, which is a promising target for new antibiotics due to its unique presence in bacteria. The modified enzyme retains its natural functions and could be crucial in combating antibiotic resistance, which claims over a million lives annually. Credit: SciTechDaily.
com Scientists created a water-soluble version of an important bacterial enzyme, which can now be used in drug screens to identify new antibiotics. MIT researchers have engineered a water-soluble histidine kinase, a bacterial enzyme that could lead to a new class of antibiotics aimed at addressing the growing issue of antibiotic resistance. This development also paves the way for using similar techniques to mitigate environmental issues like greenhouse gas emissions.
Histidine Kinase as an Antibiotic Target A bacterial enzyme called histidine kinase is a promising target for new classes of antibiotics. However, it has been difficult to develop drugs that target this enzyme, because it is a “hydrophobic” protein that loses its structure once removed from its normal location in the cell membrane. Now, an MIT-led team has found a way to make the enzyme water-soluble, which could make it possible to rapidly screen potential drugs that might interfere with its functions.
The researchers created their new version of histidine kinase by replacing four specific hydrophobic amino acids with three hydrophilic ones. Even after th.
