Claims
- 1. A method of treating a microbial infection, comprising:
providing a pharmaceutical composition containing an inhibitor of FtsZ; and administering the composition to a patient in need thereof.
- 2. A method of detecting FtsZ activity, comprising steps of:
combining FtsZ pyruvate kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, GTP, PEP, and NADH in a reaction mixture; and detecting a change in the rate of the decrease of NADH fluorescence in the reaction mixture.
- 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of detecting comprises measuring the change in the rate of the decrease of NADH fluorescence uses a fluorescence spectroscopy.
- 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the reaction mixture is placed in a multi-well plate.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein detecting comprises measuring the change in the rate of the decrease of NADH fluorescence uses a fluorescent plate reader.
- 6. A method for identifying compounds that affect cell division, comprising steps of:
expressing the FtsZ protein in a cell; contacting the cell with a compound; and detecting a defect in cell division.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the defect in cell division is an activation of cell division.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the activation of cell division causes a phenotype of minicells devoid of DNA.
- 9. The method of claim 6, wherein the defect in cell division is an inhibition of cell division.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the inhibition of cell division causes a phenotype of long filamentous cells.
- 11. A method of identifying compounds that affect cell division, comprising steps of:
contacting a cell that is defective in cell division with a compound of interest; and detecting an alteration in the phenotype of the cell.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the cells are ftsZ84 cells.
- 13. The method of claim 11, phenotype would be a destabilization in the Z ring structure.
- 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the phenotype is an exacerbation of the failure to form Z rings.
- 15. An assay system for identifying compounds that effect cell division, the assay system comprising:
a reaction mixture comprising a FtsZ protein, pyruvate kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, GTP, PEP, and NADH.
- 16. An assay system for identifying compounds that effect cell division, the assay system comprising:
bacterial cell that has a mutation effecting a multidrug efflux pump, wherein the bacterial cell further expresses a FtsZ protein.
- 17. The assay system of claim 16, wherein the bacterial cell is a ftsZ84 bacterial cell.
- 18. A pharmaceutical composition for inhibiting cell division, comprising:
an effective amount of one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of 58-P18, 16-L09, 18-M04, 27-F02, and 26-E10 of FIG. 3 and FIG. 6.
PRIORITY INFORMATION
[0001] This application is related to the subject matter in and claims benefit of pending U.S. provisional application Serial No. 60/292,883, filed May 22, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
[0002] Development of the present invention was funded by a grant from the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(Grant Number N65236-98-1-5408. Accordingly, the United States Government may have certain rights in the invention.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60292883 |
May 2001 |
US |