Bacterial caseinolytic proteases as novel targets for antibacterial treatment

Bacterial Clp proteases are important for protein turnover and homeostasis in order to maintain vital cellular functions particularly under stress conditions. Apart from their crucial role in general protein quality control by degrading abnormally folded or otherwise aberrant or malfunctioning proteins, their temporally and spatially precise proteolysis of key regulatory proteins additionally guides several developmental processes like cell motility, genetic competence, cell differentiation, sporulation as well as important aspects of virulence. Due to their apparent relevance for many physiological processes and their conservation among diverse bacterial species including human pathogens, Clp proteases have attracted considerable attention as targets for antibacterial action in recent years. Particularly a novel class of potent acyldepsipeptide antibiotics unleashes ClpP, the uniform proteolytic core unit of the degradative Clp complexes, to bring about bacterial death via uncontrolled proteolysis of proteins that are essential for bacterial viability. In addition, covalent inhibition of the catalytic center of ClpP by another class of small molecule inhibitors is investigated in the context of virulence inhibition. Both antibacterial mechanisms constitute innovative approaches with the potential to control infections caused by multi-resistant bacterial pathogens due to the lack of cross-resistance to established antibiotic classes.