RNA as A Potent Target for Antibacterial Drug Discovery

Abstract

The development of novel antibiotics is becoming a real emergency due to the growing number of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. This is also a global problem due to mass production and application of various antibiotics both in human and veterinary medicine. Therefore, we need not only to create novel antibiotics but also to speed up the development pipeline. This may be achieved by using novel targets for antibacterial drug discovery. In this review, we focus our attention on several different types of RNA molecules that have been used as antibacterial drug targets. The RNA is the most ambiguous biopolymer in the cell, which carries many different functions. For instance, tRNAs, rRNAs, and mRNAs are essential for gene expression both in the pro-and eukaryotes. However, all these types of RNAs have sequences and something 3D structures that are specific for bacteria only and can be used to shut down essential biochemical processes in bacteria only. All these features make RNA very potent target for antibacterial drug development.