Presenter(s)

Bo A Leszcynski

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Description

Multidrug resistant antibacterial strains are a dangerous problem in modern medicine. One way that bacterial strains can become resistant to common antibiotics is by overexpressing efflux pumps, which are transporters in the cells’ membranes that pump antibiotics out of the cell. The goal is to find inhibitors of bacterial efflux pumps that might reverse the multidrug resistance characteristic. The potential for solving this problem might be found in mother nature. When cells of two different strains are grown together, they must compete with each other for nutrients. This competition can lead to the production of compounds that are toxic to the competing strain. One such compound may be a compound that inhibits the efflux of antibiotics from the cell. To address the multidrug resistance problem, microbes that are known producers of antibiotics will be analyzed and it will be determined if they can produce efflux pump inhibitors that might be therapeutically valuable for us. Preliminary results indicate that two strains, S. griseus and P. polymyxa, might indeed produce an efflux pump inhibitor when they are grown together.

Publication Date

4-24-2019

Project Designation

Honors Thesis

Primary Advisor

Matthew E. Lopper

Primary Advisor's Department

Chemistry

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Analysis and Review of the Effects of Bacterial Competition on Efflux Pump Inhibition

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