According to Dickon Alley, a researcher at California-based Anacor Pharmaceuticals, the compound, known as AN2690, kills fungi by blocking their ability to make proteins. Mr Alley said that so far, the compound has been very successful in clinical trials.
AN2690 interferes with an enzyme called leucyl-tRNA synthetase, which is involved in translating the genetic code in fungus and bacteria. The research found that blocking leucyl-tRNA synthetase, one of a group of enzymes called aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, meant that fungus and bacteria can no longer grow, which effectively stops the infection.
The researchers discovered that a boron atom found in AN2690 was crucial to blocking leucyl-tRNA synthetase, which they believe suggests that boron containing compounds could be a promising new class of drug candidates.
“Now that we know how AN2690 works, the same approach could be adapted to target other aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases with editing sites and also other pathogenic microbes,” said Stephen Cusack, head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s Grenoble, France unit, which jointly carried out the research with Anacor.
“We are now working towards finding related antibacterial compounds that could help counter the problem of antibiotic resistance,” Mr Cusak concluded.