Citation

Drebes J, Kunz M, Pereira CA, Betzel C, Wrenger C. Curr. Med. Chem. 2014; 21(15): 1809-1818.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Bentham Science Publishers)

DOI

10.2174/0929867320666131119122520

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Infections caused by the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are today a major burden in nosocomial disease control. The global trend shows an alarming increase of MRSA infections as well as multi-drug resistance (MDR). The problem is exacerbated by the fact that infections with community-associated (CA) MRSA strains showing increased virulence and fitness add to infections with multi-drug resistant hospital-associated (HA) MRSA. The toxicity of pathogens and limited effectiveness of available treatment have led to high mortality rates and vast expenses caused by prolonged hospitalization and usage of additional antibiotics. Recently approved drugs still have classical targets and upcoming resistance can be expected. In a new approach by targeting co-factor syntheses of bacteria, the drug target and the affected pathways are uncoupled. This novel strategy is based on the thought of a classical pro-drug which has to be metabolized before becoming toxic for the bacterium as a dysfunctional co-factor, named suicide drug. Ideally these metabolizing pathways are solely present in the bacterium and absent in the human host, such as vitamin biosyntheses. This mini-review discusses current ways of MRSA infection treatment using new approaches including suicide drugs targeting co-factor biosyntheses. ©2014 Bentham Science Publishers.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; human; mortality; hospitalization; Clinical Trials as Topic; article; antiinfective agent; drug screening; drug research; antibiotic agent; Anti-Bacterial Agents; hospital infection; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; drug targeting; multidrug resistance; clinical trial (topic); prodrug; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; drug effects; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection; B vitamins; Co-factor starvation; community acquired infection; Drug discovery; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; MRSA; Multi drug resistance; Pro-drug; Staphylococcal Infections; Suicide drug; vitamin metabolism