Another Look At The Cell Wall

Abstract

A simple, high-throughput strategy to measure the stiffness of bacterial cells could be a boon in the hunt for new antibiotics, according to its developers (Mol. Microbiol., DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2012.08063.x). Douglas B. Weibel of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and KC Huang of Stanford University plan to use their technique to screen for proteins that pathogenic bacteria rely on to maintain their protective cell walls. Eventually Weibel hopes to develop small molecules that can shut down such potential antibacterial targets. This wouldn’t be the first time antibiotic developers trained their arrows at the cell wall. It’s the target of the mother of all antibiotics, penicillin. This and other β-lactams interfere with the assembly of the peptidoglycan layer that makes cell walls stiff. But resistance to these molecules has driven many antibiotic developers to look at targets beyond the cell wall. Weibel thinks the time is ripe to reevaluate the cell wall ...