A Mutant Used as a Unique Screening Tool to Identify Cell Wall Synthesis Inhibitors that Reverse -Lactam Resistance in MRSA.

is a leading cause of bacterial infections world-wide. Staphylococcal infections are preferentially treated with -lactam antibiotics, however, methicillin-resistant (MRSA) strains have acquired resistance to this superior class of antibiotics. We have developed a growth-based, high-throughput screening approach that directly identifies cell wall synthesis inhibitors capable of reversing -lactam resistance in MRSA. The screen is based on the finding that mutants lacking the ClpX chaperone grow very poorly at 30°C unless specific steps in teichoic acid synthesis or penicillin binding protein (PBP) activity are inhibited. This property allowed us to exploit the mutant as a unique screening tool to rapidly identify biologically active compounds that target cell wall synthesis. We tested a library of ∼50,000 small chemical compounds and searched for compounds that inhibited growth of the wild type while stimulating growth of the mutant. Fifty-eight compounds met these screening criteria, and preliminary tests of 10 compounds identified seven compounds that reverse -lactam resistance of MRSA as expected for inhibitors of teichoic acid synthesis. The hit compounds are therefore promising candidates for further development as novel combination agents to restore -lactam efficacy against MRSA.