Towards New Antibiotics – Targeting Penicillin Binding Proteins
The lecture will begin by giving some thoughts on possible reasons as to why β-lactams remain the most important antibacterials after more than 70 years of use. Mechanisms of resistance to the β-lactams will be described, focussing on the β-lactamases. A review of attempts to develop non β-lactams targeting the penicillin binding protein (PBP) targets of β-lactams and β-lactamases will be given. Work aimed at the development of single compounds targeting PBPs and both metallo and serine β-lactamases will be described.