Penicillin Binding Protein 7/8 Is a Potential Drug Target in Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
Thomas A. Russo, Ulrike MacDonald, Cassandra L. Alvarado, Connor J. Davies, Oscar Barnes, Grishma Trivedi, Parijat Mathur, Alan D. Hutson, Felise G. Adams, Maoge Zang, Alice Ascari, Bart A. Eijkelkamp
Abstract
was not significantly affected by the loss of PBP 7/8 and serial passage of the mutant strain in human ascites over 7 days did not yield revertants possessing a wild-type phenotype. In summary, these data and other features support PBP 7/8 as a high-value drug target for extensively drug-resistant and CR A. baumannii. Our results guide next-stage studies; the determination that the inactivation of PBP 7/8 results in an increased sensitivity to lysozyme enables the design of a high-throughput screening assay to identify small molecule compounds that can specifically inhibit PBP 7/8 activity.