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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2009, p. 385-392, Vol. 53, No. 2
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00670-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655
Received 21 May 2008/ Returned for modification 11 August 2008/ Accepted 30 October 2008
Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, utilizes a plasmid-encoded type III secretion system (T3SS) to aid it with its resistance to host defenses. This system injects a set of effector proteins known as Yops (Yersinia outer proteins) into the cytosol of host cells that come into contact with the bacteria. T3SS is absolutely required for the virulence of Y. pestis, making it a potential target for new therapeutics. Using a novel and simple high-throughput screening method, we examined a diverse collection of chemical libraries for small molecules that inhibit type III secretion in Y. pestis. The primary screening of 70,966 compounds and mixtures yielded 421 presumptive inhibitors. We selected eight of these for further analysis in secondary assays. Four of the eight compounds effectively inhibited Yop secretion at micromolar concentrations. Interestingly, we observed differential inhibition among Yop species with some compounds. The compounds did not inhibit bacterial growth at the concentrations used in the inhibition assays. Three compounds protected HeLa cells from type III secretion-dependent cytotoxicity. Of the eight compounds examined in secondary assays, four show good promise as leads for structure-activity relationship studies. They are a diverse group, with each having a chemical scaffold not only distinct from each other but also distinct from previously described candidate type III secretion inhibitors.
Published ahead of print on 17 November 2008.
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