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Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Isolation of Translating Ribosomes Containing Peptidyl-tRNAs for Functional and Structural Analyses
Published on: February 25, 2011
Antibiotic drugs targeting bacterial RNAs
Weiling Hong1, Jie Zeng1, Jianping Xie1
1Institute of Modern Biopharmaceuticals, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Eco-Environment and Bio-Resource of the Three Gorges Area, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education Eco-Environment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Abstract:
RNAs have diverse structures that include bulges and internal loops able to form tertiary contacts or serve as ligand binding sites. The recent increase in structural and functional information related to RNAs has put them in the limelight as a drug target for small molecule therapy. In addition, the recognition of the marked difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic rRNA has led to the development of antibiotics that specifically target bacterial rRNA, reduce protein translation and thereby inhibit bacterial growth. To facilitate the development of new antibiotics targeting RNA, we here review the literature concerning such antibiotics, mRNA, riboswitch and tRNA and the key methodologies used for their screening.
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