Issue 8, 2015

Targeting virulence: salmochelin modification tunes the antibacterial activity spectrum of β-lactams for pathogen-selective killing of Escherichia coli

Abstract

New antibiotics are required to treat bacterial infections and counteract the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Pathogen-specific antibiotics have several advantages over broad-spectrum drugs, which include minimal perturbation to the commensal microbiota. We present a strategy for targeting antibiotics to bacterial pathogens that utilises the salmochelin-mediated iron uptake machinery of Gram-negative Escherichia coli. Salmochelins are C-glucosylated derivatives of the siderophore enterobactin. The biosynthesis and utilisation of salmochelins are important for virulence because these siderophores allow pathogens to acquire iron and evade the enterobactin-scavenging host-defense protein lipocalin-2. Inspired by the salmochelins, we report the design and chemoenzymatic preparation of glucosylated enterobactin–β-lactam conjugates that harbour the antibiotics ampicillin (Amp) and amoxicillin (Amx), hereafter GlcEnt–Amp/Amx. The GlcEnt scaffolds are based on mono- and diglucosylated Ent where one catechol moiety is functionalized at the C5 position for antibiotic attachment. We demonstrate that GlcEnt–Amp/Amx provide up to 1000-fold enhanced antimicrobial activity against uropathogenic E. coli relative to the parent β-lactams. Moreover, GlcEnt–Amp/Amx based on a diglucosylated Ent (DGE) platform selectively kill uropathogenic E. coli that express the salmochelin receptor IroN in the presence of non-pathogenic E. coli and other bacterial strains that include the commensal microbe Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Moreover, GlcEnt–Amp/Amx evade the host-defense protein lipocalin-2, and exhibit low toxicity to mammalian cells. Our work establishes that siderophore–antibiotic conjugates provide a strategy for targeting virulence, narrowing the activity spectrum of antibiotics in clinical use, and achieving selective delivery of antibacterial cargos to pathogenic bacteria on the basis of siderophore receptor expression.

Graphical abstract: Targeting virulence: salmochelin modification tunes the antibacterial activity spectrum of β-lactams for pathogen-selective killing of Escherichia coli

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
17 Mar 2015
Accepted
21 May 2015
First published
22 May 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 4458-4471

Author version available

Targeting virulence: salmochelin modification tunes the antibacterial activity spectrum of β-lactams for pathogen-selective killing of Escherichia coli

P. Chairatana, T. Zheng and E. M. Nolan, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 4458 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC00962F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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