CHEMISTRY FOR LIFE SCIENCES

Abstract: CANNOT-ESKAPE project targets the three most scary multidrug resistant bacteria belonging to the ESKAPE family of pathogens, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa, which are the leading cause of hospital infections globally and are reported by WHO as the greatest threat to the human health. The goal of the project is to acquire new information on molecular mechanisms of resistance and adaptation of these pathogens to desiccation and last-resort drugs, mediated by a pool of cell envelope modifying enzymes. WP1 will contribute to the structural and biochemical characterisation of a panel of CPS degrading enzymes and of LPS modifying enzymes. The interaction of these enzymes with cell envelope fragments extracted from clinical strains will be studied in WP2 as a tool to develop enzyme inhibitors using computational approaches. Confirmed hits, which will be microbiologically and immunochemically tested in WP3, will provide good starting points for chemical optimization.

Activity : 2022-2025