Researchers at Florida International University, led by biochemistry professor Fenfei Leng, set out to build a faster way to search for new antibiotics. They developed what they describe as the first high-throughput screening method specifically designed to identify DNA gyrase poisons.
DNA gyrase is a bacterial enzyme that some antibiotics target. Poisons that disrupt it are of interest because they may offer new ways to fight bacterial infections. The new screening method was intended to speed up the discovery of such compounds.
During the screening, the team encountered an unexpected result: a rare DNA gyrase poison emerged from the search. This suggests the method could uncover candidates that other approaches might miss.
The work is still at an early stage, but the new screening tool may help researchers find antibiotics more efficiently in the future.