Deslouches Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2024

Structural determinants of activity and mechanism of cationic peptide antibiotic activity against colistin-resistant bacteria

Abstract. The emergence of antibiotic resistance (AR) underscores the urgent need to develop novel antimicrobial agents that are able to overcome current AR mechanisms. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) tend to disrupt bacterial membranes regardless of resistance to traditional antibiotics. However, bacteria have also evolved to resist the effects of AMPs by reducing (e.g., incorporation of phosphoethanolamine), not eliminating, the net electronegative charge of lipid A, an important component of LPS targeted by AMPs. Because a minimum electronegative charge is essential to bacterial membrane integrity, AMPs can be optimized to overcome limited changes in LPS, the most common resistance…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.