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Antibiotic ‘Velcro’ gives bacteria a sticky s - EurekAlert


A small antibiotic called plectasin uses an innovative mechanism to kill bacteria. By assembling into large structures, plectasin latches onto its target on the bacterial cell surface comparable to how both sides of Velcro form a bond. A research team, led by structural biologist Markus Weingarth and biochemist Eefjan Breukink  at Utrecht University, mapped how the Velcro-structure is formed. Their discovery, published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology, unveils a new approach that could have broad implications for the development of antibiotics to combat antimicrobial resistance.

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