Researchers uncover keys to antibiotic resistance in MRSA

University of Notre Dame researchers Shahriar Mobashery and Mayland Chang and their collaborators in Spain have published research results this week that show how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) regulates the critical crosslinking of its cell wall in the face of beta-lactam antibiotics.

Modern strains of MRSA have become broadly resistant to antibiotics, including beta-lactam antibiotics, such as penicillins. In their report, the researchers disclose the discovery of an allosteric domain in the X-ray structure of the penicillin binding protein 2a of MRSA, the enzyme that carries out the crosslinking reaction. (An allosteric site is a place on the protein where its activity is regulated by the binding of another molecule.)

Read more:
Notre Dame researchers uncover keys to antibiotic resistance in MRSA 

Source: University of Notre Dame
Image credits: Notre Dame News

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LaboratoryEQAS

Twitter: LaboratoryEQAS

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/labmed/medical-laboratory-and-biomedical-science/