Targeting copper with natural products: uncovering a novel class of copper chelating drug candidates

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

Methanobactins (Mbns) are small copper-binding peptidic natural products first identified in methanotrophic bacteria (Fig. 1), microorganisms that utilize methane gas a carbon source.1,2 Operons resembling the putative Mbn biosynthesis operon have recently been identified in a range of proteobacterial species via genome mining.3 I hypothesize that these operons encode the biosynthetic machinery needed to produce Mbn-like peptidic natural products, and that differing peptidic backbones and post-translational modifications will confer on these products a range of copper affinities and specificities. This expanded set of Mbns will provide drug candidates for diseases related to copper overabundance.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date7/1/146/30/16

Funding

  • American Heart Association Midwest Affiliate (14PRE20460104)

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