The international team of researchers found out that beta-lactam antibiotics, to which Penicillin relates, kill the methicillin-resistant golden staphylococcus (MRSA), creating holes in cell walls. The disclosing mechanism of the work of antibiotics The article of scientists is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
science has already known that the effect of beta-lactam antibiotics is based on the suppression of the growth of cell walls. However, as antibiotics kill bacteria, it remained a mystery. For starters, specialists from Macmaster, Masarikov, Xiaaman and Sheffield universities built a simple model of how the cell wall is expanding during the growth and division of bacteria. The hypothesis constructed on its basis about the mechanism of the work of antibiotics was tested by a number of molecular approaches, including high-resolution atomic force microscopy.
“Our study showed that antibiotics form small holes in the cell wall, which gradually increase during the associated process, as a result, killing the bacterium. We also found some enzymes that participate in the formation of the holes,” said one of the researchers , Professor of Sheffield University Simon Foster.