Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Visualization of Bacterial Resistance using Fluorescent Antibiotic Probes
Published on: March 2, 2020
Metal-Ligand Interactions: Overlooked Confounders in Antibiotic Discovery and Development
Ziyi Jia1, Moyosore Oluseyi Orimoloye2, Courtney C Aldrich2
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
None:
The unabating rise of antimicrobial resistance makes the development of novel and effective antibiotics an urgent global health need. Progress toward assuaging this need is, however, limited by low levels of investment and patently low financial incentives. Eliminating inefficiencies in antibiotic development is therefore important to ensure effective deployment of limited resources. Metal interference in high-throughput assays, mechanism of action studies, and the eventual pharmacokinetics of antibiotics in development is an overlooked confounder in this process. In this Viewpoint, we, focusing on antibiotics, briefly provide a compartment-based approach to anticipating various possibilities for such interference and recommend toolkits for identification.
Related Concept Videos
Ligand Binding Sites
Protein-ligand interactions are quite specific; even though numerous potential ligands surround a cellular protein at any given time, only a particular ligand can bind to that protein. Moreover, a ligand binds only to a dedicated area on the surface of the protein, known as the...
Ligand Binding Sites
Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
Antibiotic Selection
Development of Antibiotic Resistance
Combined Effects of Drugs: Synergism
Such synergistic combinations...

