A Novel Technique for Safe and Inexpensive Antibiotic Mechanism of Action Determination

Overview

Antibiotics are a diverse group of chemicals that successfully inhibit bacterial growth by interrupting one in a series of biochemical steps necessary for successful cellular proliferation. Novel antibiotic development requires determining what bacterial cellular process is inhibited at the molecular level, labeled as the mechanism of action (MOA). Current strategies to determine a MOA involve radiolabeled amino acids, which not only pose major biological health and safety threats, but are extremely costly. A new method, presented and tested here, using Cytochrome c (a spectroscopic protein intrinsic to prokaryotic cells) and a UV-visible spectrophotometer (an instrument which can measure protein concentration), is significantly cheaper and safer than radiolabeling amino acids.. This method was shown to be reliable in determining whether an antibiotic targets specific steps in protein synthesis; these results are currently being verified. Methods that incorporate additional techniques are being developed to determine an exact MOA of any given antibiotic.

Competition history

• AJAS 2018 Category not listed

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