Studying aminoglycoside modification by the acetyltransferase class of resistance-causing enzymes via microarray.

Aminoglycosides are broad-spectrum antibacterials to which some bacteria have acquired resistance. The most common mode of resistance to aminoglycosides is enzymatic modification of the drug by different classes of enzymes including acetyltransferases (AACs). Thus, the modification of aminoglycosides by AAC(2') from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and AAC(3) from Escherichia coli was studied using aminoglycoside microarrays.

An aminoglycoside microarray platform for directly monitoring and studying antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to human health. Since resistance to the aminoglycoside class of antibiotics is most commonly caused by enzymatic modification, we developed a high-throughput microarray platform for directly assaying resistance enzyme activity on aminoglycosides. After modification, the array can be hybridized with the therapeutic target, a bacterial rRNA A-site mimic, to study the effect that modification has on binding.