Person:
Andreu Rodríguez, José Manuel

Profile Picture
First Name
José Manuel
Last Name
Andreu Rodríguez
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/80118
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Psicología
Department
Personalidad, Evaluación y Psicología Clínica
Area
Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológico
Identifiers
UCM identifierORCIDScopus Author IDDialnet IDGoogle Scholar ID

Filters

2017 - 201912020 - 20221
Reset filters

Settings

Author: Andreu Rodríguez, José Manuel × Item Type: Publication × Has files: true × Subject: 577.18.08 ×

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The structural assembly switch of cell division protein FtsZ probed with fluorescent allosteric inhibitors
    (Chemical Science, 2017) Artola Pérez de Azanza, Marta Elena; Ruiz Ávila, Laura, Laura B.; Ramírez Aportela, Erney; Fernando Martínez, R.; Araujo Bazán, Lidia; Vázquez Villa, Henar; Martín Fontecha, María del Mar; Oliva Blanco, María Ángela; Martín Galiano, Antonio Javier; Chacón Montes, Pablo; López Rodríguez, María Luz; Andreu Rodríguez, José Manuel; Huecas Gayo, Sonia
    FtsZ is a widely conserved tubulin-like GTPase that directs bacterial cell division and a new target for antibiotic discovery. This protein assembly machine cooperatively polymerizes forming single-stranded filaments, by means of self-switching between inactive and actively associating monomer conformations. The structural switch mechanism was proposed to involve a movement of the C-terminal and N-terminal FtsZ domains, opening a cleft between them, allosterically coupled to the formation of a tight association interface between consecutive subunits along the filament. The effective antibacterial benzamide PC190723 binds into the open interdomain cleft and stabilizes FtsZ filaments, thus impairing correct formation of the FtsZ ring for cell division. We have designed fluorescent analogs of PC190723 to probe the FtsZ structural assembly switch. Among them, nitrobenzoxadiazole probes specifically bind to assembled FtsZ rather than to monomers. Probes with several spacer lengths between the fluorophore and benzamide moieties suggest a binding site extension along the interdomain cleft. These probes label FtsZ rings of live Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus, without apparently modifying normal cell morphology and growth, but at high concentrations they induce impaired bacterial division phenotypes typical of benzamide antibacterials. During the FtsZ assembly-disassembly process, the fluorescence anisotropy of the probes changes upon binding and dissociating from FtsZ, thus reporting open and closed FtsZ interdomain clefts. Our results demonstrate the structural mechanism of the FtsZ assembly switch, and suggest that the probes bind into the open clefts in cellular FtsZ polymers preferably to unassembled FtsZ in the bacterial cytosol.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Search for Antibacterial Inhibitors Targeting Cell Division Protein FtsZ at Its Nucleotide and Allosteric Binding Sites.
    (Biomedicines, 2022) Andreu Rodríguez, José Manuel; Huecas Gayo, Sonia; Araujo Bazán, Lidia; Vázquez Villa, Henar; Martín-Fontecha Corrales, María Del Mar
    The global spread of bacterial antimicrobial resistance is associated to millions of deaths from bacterial infections per year, many of which were previously treatable. This, combined with slow antibiotic deployment, has created an urgent need for developing new antibiotics. A still clinically unexploited mode of action consists in suppressing bacterial cell division. FtsZ, an assembling GTPase, is the key protein organizing division in most bacteria and an attractive target for antibiotic discovery. Nevertheless, developing effective antibacterial inhibitors targeting FtsZ has proven challenging. Here we review our decade-long multidisciplinary research on small molecule inhibitors of bacterial division, in the context of global efforts to discover FtsZ-targeting antibiotics. We focus on methods to characterize synthetic inhibitors that either replace bound GTP from the FtsZ nucleotide binding pocket conserved across diverse bacteria or selectively bind into the allosteric site at the interdomain cleft of FtsZ from Bacillus subtilis and the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. These approaches include phenotype screening combined with fluorescence polarization screens for ligands binding into each site, followed by detailed cytological profiling, and biochemical and structural studies. The results are analyzed to design an optimized workflow to identify effective FtsZ inhibitors, and new approaches for the discovery of FtsZ-targeting antibiotics are discussed.