Integrated analyses of virulence factors from Staphylococcus aureusaiming to pursue novel pathogenic mechanisms and chemotherapy based on new concept

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

On the way to pursue novel pathogenic mechanisms that can be candidates for targets of novel chemotherapy, I found ・-hemolysin, known as an erythrolytic toxin from Staphylococcus aureus, damages human keratinocytes. This result suggests that the toxin is presumably involved in atopic dermatitis that is worsened by S. aureus infection, and the finding may lead to further understanding of the disease and its therapy. I also played part in research on re-evaluation of nybomycin, that had been isolated from actinobacteria over 50 years ago, and showed that the substance specifically inhibits function of mutated bacterial DNA gyrase that was no longer inactivated by fluoroquinolones, whereas nybomycin-resistant DNA gyrase acquired fluoroquinolone susceptibility, indicating fluoroquinolones and nybomicin have mutually complementary functions. Such substance against known antibiotic was designated ‘reverse antibiotic’, being expected to open new era of antibiotic chemotherapy. It should be noted that the results described above were obtained cooperative researches with scientists who were originally out of this project.