Identification of a potent small-molecule inhibitor of bacterial DNA repair that potentiates quinolone antibiotic activity in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The global emergence of antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious challenges facing modern medicine. There is an urgent need for validation of new drug targets and the development of small molecules with novel mechanisms of action. We therefore sought to inhibit bacterial DNA repair mediated by the AddAB/RecBCD protein complexes as a means to sensitize bacteria to DNA damage caused by the host immune system or quinolone antibiotics.

A Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Cisplatin: Investigating the Intracellular Reduction of Platinum(IV) Prodrug Complexes.

The Pt prodrug strategy has emerged as an excellent alternative to tackle the problems associated with conventional Pt drug therapy. However, there is a lack of tools to study how this new class of Pt drugs are processed at the cellular level. Herein, we report the first ratiometric probe for cisplatin detection and use it to investigate Pt anticancer complexes in biological systems.