Project description
A Trojan horse strategy for killing bacteria
The rapid increase in antibiotic resistance poses a global healthcare threat. According to the World Health Organisation, the development of novel drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Gram-negative nosocomial infections constitutes a top priority. To enhance drug uptake by bacteria, the EU-funded ANTIBIOCLICKS project is working on a Trojan horse-like approach whereby the antibiotic gets conjugated to iron-chelating microbial siderophores used to transport iron across cell membranes. Scientists will employ a simple yet powerful click chemistry strategy to couple siderophores to antibiotics or other molecules and evaluate their antibiotic and diagnostic potential. The new bioinspired conjugation chemistry will serve as the stepping stone for the future development of novel bacterial therapeutics and diagnostics.
Objective
The frightening increase in antibiotic drug resistance is threatening global healthcare as we know it. To this extent the World Health Organisation that has classes M. tuberculosis and Gram-negative nosocomial infections as the highest priority for novel R&D strategies. A major obstacle to drug discovery programs is to design inhibitors that can efficiently enter into bacteria. One such stealth strategy is exemplified by natural siderophore-antibiotics conjugates (sideromycins) that piggyback the bacterial iron acquisition machinery to enter bacteria. This Trojan-horse strategy has inspired the chemical synthesis of numerous sideromycin conjugates, with cefiderocol a current preclinical candidate. Despite the advances in this field, natural examples of sideromycins are still scarce, and finding new examples may provide further insight into siderophore antibiotic formation and delivery.
ANTIBIOCLICKS will investigate a unique bioinspired conjugation chemistry that has been uncovered from a newly discovered natural sideromycin. This natural “click” chemistry is ideal for the coupling of catecholate containing siderophores (such as those of the WHO prioritised M. tuberculosis, A. baumannii, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumonia) to antibiotics or other molecules. This project will aim to define the exact chemical mechanism behind this novel and surprisingly simple conjugation reaction, and use this unique and facile chemistry to generate a combinatorial library of siderophores with antibiotics and fluorophores. These products will subsequently be used to probe the exact mechanism of bacterial sideromycin uptake, potential intracellular decoupling and target engagement. Finally, the antibiotic and diagnostic potential of the generated siderophore conjugates will be evaluated. To this extent, ANTIBIOCLICKS will provide illuminating insight into new bioinspired conjugation chemistry, and evaluate its potential for novel bacterial therapeutics and diagnostics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology tuberculosis
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75654 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.