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Details of antibiotic resistance mechanisms revealed in hospital-acquired drug-resistant pathogens

Gemma Atkinson IMG 2401 562[2018-03-02] A new paper published by the research groups of Gemma Atkinson and Vasili Hauryliuk at Umeå University resolves years of uncertainty about how the widespread antibiotic resistance factors in the protein group ABCF family confer resistance to lincosamide antibiotics, often used in treatment of infections caused by staphylococci, streptococci and anaerobic bacteria.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today and the new antimicrobial strategies are urgently needed. Scientists at the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) and at The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) study therefore also antibacterial resistance mechanisms in order to develop new therapeutic strategies against resistant bacteria. The researchers solved recently a mystery in antibiotic resistance research and published their findings in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, which specialises in leading edge research into nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA, and the proteins with which they interact.

Read more: Details of antibiotic resistance mechanisms revealed in hospital-acquired drug-resistant pathogens

Battling antibiotic resistance

Scientists from MIMS and UCMR contributed to the movie "Battling antibiotic reistance" produced by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Meet Umeå scientists Felipe Cava, Maria Fällman, Fredrik Almqvist, Elisabeth Sauer-Eriksson and Jörgen Johansson and MIMS Board member Birgitta Henriques Normark and their research on new antimicrobial strategies to fight antibiotic resistance.

Movie published by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, 20 February 2018.

 

Bacteria use small molecules to slam the brakes on their own growth

Schematic Illustration of the Antitoxin Toxin System[2020-04-29] An international research team under the lead of scientists at the Umeå Center for Microbial Research (UCMR)  and The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) have uncovered a new kind of regulatory system of toxin and antitoxin proteins in bacteria that could be a defense system against viral attack. The bioinformatic identification of the proteins and their experimental validation are now published in the high impact journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US (PNAS, 28 April 2020)

When bacteria get stressed e.g. through antibiotic treatment or the lack of nutrients, they slow down their growth mechanism by small signaling molecules called Alarmones. The Atkinson and Hauryliuk labs at Umeå University have worked on the proteins that make and degrade alarmones for over a decade. They previously revealed the ubiquitous presence of small proteins that make alarmones, called small alarmone synthetases or SASs, encoded in bacterial genomes.

It was an unanswered question why bacteria carry SAS proteins in addition to their standard tool-set for alarmone synthesis and degradation. Now, Gemma C. Atkinson, Vasili Hauryliuk and their colleagues found an explanation. They showed that some SASs are components of so-called toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems.

Toxin-antitoxins genes are enigmatic components of microbial genomes. What toxins of TA systems all have in common is that they slam the brakes on growth and reproduction. This is counteracted by their antitoxins which are encoded by adjacent genes. Antitoxins can also work in different ways, either binding to the toxin to stop its action, or counteracting the effect of the toxin in an indirect way.

Read more: Bacteria use small molecules to slam the brakes on their own growth

8th National Infection Biology/Microbiology (NIB/SFM/NDPIA) - Registration is closed now!

171017 grouppicture MG 9750 webWelcome to the 8th National Infection Biology/Microbiology (NIB/SFM/NDPIA) Meeting!

Date and venue: 14-15th of October 2019, Aronsborg (Bålsta) at Aronsborgs Konferenshotell in Bålsta (between Stockholm and Uppsala).

The registration is closed now. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you forgot to register.

Read more: 8th National Infection Biology/Microbiology (NIB/SFM/NDPIA) - Registration is closed now!

56,8 million SEK funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for infection research in Umeå


Important funding for MIMS and UCMR.

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundations considers two projects lead by MIMS scientists that they will lead to scientific breakthrough and assigned them with extraordinary funding.

The project "New drugs against viral infections of the respiratory tract and eyes" will receive 23,8 million SEK and has the long-term goal to identify the detailed mechanisms that viruses use to get into a cell. The main applicant is Niklas Arnberg, professor and group leader at MIMS.

The second project will mainly study "New strategies to disarm bacteria" and receives 33 million SEK . Main applicant of this project is MIMS/UCMR group leader professor Sven Bergström, also head of the department of Molecular Biology.

Read more: 56,8 million SEK funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for infection research in Umeå