High-throughput identification of chemical inhibitors of E. coli Group 2 capsule biogenesis as anti-virulence agents.

ABSTRACT: Rising antibiotic resistance among Escherichia coli, the leading cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs), has placed a new focus on molecular pathogenesis studies, aiming to identify new therapeutic targets. Anti-virulence agents are attractive as chemotherapeutics to attenuate an organism during disease but not necessarily during benign commensalism, thus decreasing the stress on beneficial microbial communities and lessening the emergence of resistance. We and others have demonstrated that the K antigen capsule of E. coli is a preeminent virulence determinant during UTI and more invasive diseases. Components of assembly and export are highly conserved among the major K antigen capsular types associated with UTI-causing E. coli and are distinct from the capsule biogenesis machinery of ma

SUBMITTER: Goller CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2906519 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature