Multidrug Efflux Pumps and the Two-Faced Janus of Substrates and Inhibitors.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotics are miracle drugs that can cure infectious bacterial diseases. However, their utility is challenged by antibiotic-resistant bacteria emerging in clinics and straining modern medicine and our ways of life. Certain bacteria such as Gram-negative (Gram(-)) and Mycobacteriales species are intrinsically resistant to most clinical antibiotics and can further gain multidrug resistance through mutations and plasmid acquisition. These species stand out by the presence of an additional external lipidic membrane, the outer membrane (OM), that is composed of unique glycolipids. Although formidable, the OM is a passive permeability barrier that can reduce penetration of antibiotics but cannot affect intracellular steady-state concentrations of drugs. The two-membrane envelopes are further r

SUBMITTER: Zgurskaya HI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8208102 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature