Chemoenzymatic studies of aminoglycoside-resistance enzymes toward new drugs

Aminoglycosides are broad-spectrum antibiotics used for treatment of serious bacterial infections, including the deadly tuberculosis and those accompanying AIDS, cystic fibrosis, and cancer. The emergence of pathogens resistant to these drugs represents a major threat to public health and underscores the need for new antimicrobial agents. In Aim 1, we propose to utilize aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes of the aminoglycoside acetyltransferase (AAC) family in conjunction with a newly developed 6’-N-acylation protecting group-free chemical methodology (i) to generate in vitro libraries of new and more potent N-acylated aminoglycoside antibiotics, and (ii) to develop aminoglycoside probes that will serve as baits for identification of novel therapeutic protein targets/pathways for these antibiotics. Our chemoenzymatic and chemical strategies offer an effective solution to the following problems: (i) there are no existing general synthetic methodologies for the creation of N-acylated aminoglycosides, and (ii) there are no efficient methods to chemically modify specific amine groups on an aminoglycoside that contains a series of chemically identical amines. A few existing examples that use solely chemical syntheses are too demanding on research time and cost and are limited to very specific cases. In Aim 2, we propose biochemical and structural studies of the mechanism of action and inhibition of a major determinant of aminoglycoside resistance in extensively drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis (XDR-TB). We expect this work to (i) advance the basic understanding of AG resistance of a variety of pathogenic bacteria, including M. tuberculosis, and (ii) provide a potential solution to overcome the aminoglycoside resistance problem in majority of XDRTB. Relevance to public health: We expect that this work will contribute to the development of novel antibiotics with a potential to combat existing and newly emerging drug-resistant bacteria.