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This new discovery could lead to the design of drugs that might eliminate the anthrax pathogen’s ability to harvest iron and stop an infection dead in its tracks. A respiratory anthrax infection is nearly always fatal but this discovery opens new possibilities for combating such infections.

The benefits of the discovery may even go beyond treatments for Anthrax. The researchers are now looking at similar enzymes involved in the assembly of citric acid-derived siderophores in E. coli and MRSA, which may offer further targets for drug development.

Funding for the research reported in both papers was provided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

Notes for Editors: The African violet pathogen research "AcsD catalyzes enantioselective citrate desymmetrization in siderophore biosynthesis" is published in Nature Chemical Biology, 2009, 5, 174-182. The paper on Anthrax entitled "Enantioselective desymmetrisation of citric acid catalysed by the substrate-tolerant petrobactin biosynthetic enzyme AsbA" is published in Chemical Communications, 2009, doi: 10.1039/b823147h

For further information please contact:

Professor Greg Challis, Professor of Chemical Biology,
Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick
Tel: +44 (0)24 7657 4024
G.L.Challis@warwick.ac.uk   or

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager,
Communications Office, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
+44 (0)24 76 523708 or +44 (0)7767 655860 email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR21 PJD 23rd February 2009