A review on bacterial cell-division protein and recent progress of FtsZ inhibitors development

Abstract

In recent years, the abuse of antibiotics has caused the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which is now widely spread around the world. It is currently a critical issue that seriously threats to human health due to the lack of effective clinical drugs to treat the multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. With such a serious shortage of drugs and means for clinical treatment against multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, it is urgently needed to develop new antibacterial drugs, especially those molecules possessing new mechanisms of action to combat the drug-resistant bacteria. Filamenting temperature-sensitive mutant Z (FtsZ) is an essential protein for bacterial division and has been one of the most popular targets for new drug discovery. FtsZ is a highly conserved protein and it plays a key role in cell division in most prokaryotic cells. In this article, we reviewed the structural characteristics and biological functions of bacterial cell division proteins and the recent research progress on antibacterial drugs development targeting FtsZ. 近年来，由于抗生素的滥用，耐药性细菌广泛出现，对人体健康的威胁日益严峻。随着临床用药的选择不断减少，迫切需要开发新的抗菌药物，特别是新作用机制的抗菌分子来对抗出现的耐药菌。细胞分裂温度敏感突变体Z（filamenting temperature-sensitive mutant Z, FtsZ）作为细菌分裂的必需蛋白质，是目前研究最热门的作用靶点之一。FtsZ是一种高度保守的蛋白质，在大多数原核细胞的细胞分裂中发挥着关键作用。本文回顾了细菌分裂蛋白的结构特点及其生物学功能，并综述了以FtsZ为靶点的抗菌药物研究的进展。