Synthetic antimicrobials based on natural toxins

结核病仍然是地球上最致命的细菌性疾病，每年造成约150万人死亡。它可以治疗，但抗生素耐药性正在增加。结核分枝杆菌可以通过使用结核细胞内产生的天然毒素减缓其生长而在抗生素治疗中存活。这些毒素中的一些针对DNA复制后解开DNA的基本过程。我们已经确定了这种酶的特征，这种酶具有分离新DNA染色体的活性，并且已经表明毒素会抑制它的作用。现在，我们的目标是生成毒素活性的原子分辨率模型，这样我们就可以生成用于治疗感染的抗菌模拟物。

Tuberculosis remains the deadliest bacterial disease on the planet, killing around 1.5 million people each year. It can be treated, but antibiotic resistance is increasing. Mycobacterium tuberculosis can survive antibiotic treatment by slowing down its growth using naturally occurring toxins made inside tuberculosis cells. Some of these toxins target the essential process of untangling DNA after it replicates. We have characterised the enzyme that performs the activity of separating new DNA chromosomes, and have shown that toxins inhibit its action. Now we aim to generate atomic resolution models of toxin activity, so we can generate antimicrobial mimics for treating infections.