Antibacterial peptide derived from structure of a bacteria's essential protein

A new study described an antibacterial synthetic peptide designed from the structure of a bacteria's own essential protein, suggesting targeting the structural core of these proteins could be a fruitful approach for developing species-specific antibiotics and circumventing resistance.

The study, published in The FASEB Journal, also suggests the peptides can be rationally designed, rather than searching through a protein library, and that the approach is generalizable to other bacterial species and disease areas such as cancer...