The emergence of pan-resistant strains of Gram-negative pathogens and the ability of many bacteria to form multidrug-resistant biofilms during chronic infection poses the grave threat of bacterial infections that are truly untreatable with our current armoury of antibiotics. Despite obvious clinical need, few new antibiotics have entered clinical practice in recent years. For ‘difficult to treat’ Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, where the presence of outer membrane and multidrug-efflux pumps severely limit the effectiveness of whole classes of antibiotics, the need is particularly pressing. An alternative approach to antimicrobial treatment is to use the well-characterized species-specific colicin-like bacteriocins which are produced by a wide range of Gram-negative bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. Our current work on colicin-like bacteriocins aims to determine whether these potent antimicrobial agents are effective at killing bacteria growing in the biofilm state and during infection.
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December 2012
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Conference Article|
November 21 2012
Colicin-like bacteriocins as novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of chronic biofilm-mediated infection
Carla L. Brown;
Carla L. Brown
*Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, 39A Cleveden Road, Glasgow G12 0PH, U.K.
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Karen Smith;
Karen Smith
†Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, 3720 15th Avenue Northeast, Seattle, WA 98105, U.S.A.
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Laura McCaughey;
Laura McCaughey
†Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, 3720 15th Avenue Northeast, Seattle, WA 98105, U.S.A.
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Daniel Walker
Daniel Walker
1
*Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, 39A Cleveden Road, Glasgow G12 0PH, U.K.
1To whom correspondence should be addressed (emailDaniel.Walker@glasgow.ac.uk).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
September 14 2012
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© 2012 The Authors Journal
2012
Biochem Soc Trans (2012) 40 (6): 1549–1552.
Article history
Received:
September 14 2012
Citation
Carla L. Brown, Karen Smith, Laura McCaughey, Daniel Walker; Colicin-like bacteriocins as novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of chronic biofilm-mediated infection. Biochem Soc Trans 1 December 2012; 40 (6): 1549–1552. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20120241
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