DNA-Synthesizing enzymes as antibacterial targets

Abstract

The antimicrobial resistance is an antibiotics inherent problem, which goes hand in hand with their discovery, evolution and clinical use. The quest for new valid targets and the development of new drugs is capital in these days, when the latter antibiotic barrier (vancomycin) has been teared down. Thus, the DNA replication machinery (replisome) gathers lot of characteristics and hopes to be a robust antibacterial target. Five enzymes of the replisome focus the research: (i) topoisomerase type II, (ii) DNA primase, (iii) DNA helicase, (iv) DNA polymerase and (v) DNA ligase. These enzymes, which present characteristics that differentiate the replisome of bacteria from that of virus, archaea or eukaryotes, have been extensively studied in the last decades as antibacterial targets with divergence in outcomes as stated in this chapter.