The essential bacterial guanosine triphosphatase FtsZ was validated as a target for antibacterial intervention by British researchers from Prolysis in Oxfordshire and the University of Sheffield. FtsZ is a bacterial homologue of mammalian β-tubulin that initiates cell division by polymerising and then assembling into a ring.

The substance PC190723 prevents cell division and was used as inhibitor of FtsZ. It showed potent and selective bactericidal activity against staphylococci in vitro, including methicillin- and multi-drug–resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and succeeded in curing mice infected with a lethal dose of S. aureus in an in vivo model of infection.
The putative inhibitor-binding site of PC190723 could be mapped to a region of FtsZ that is analogous to the Taxol-binding site of tubulin.

Related antibodies on antibodies-online.com:

FtsZ

β-tubulin

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus (methicillin resistant)

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