Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an alarming, though often underestimated, phenomenon. It is currently responsible for over 700,000 deaths annually worldwide, a number that is estimated to reach 10,000,000 by 2050 if the necessary measures are not taken to combat it (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/no-time-to-wait-securing-the-future-from-drug-resistant-infections). Hence the urgency to define new targets and develop new casses of molecules with antibiotic action.
The ERASE (DEfeat Antimicrobial Resistance through Iron StArvation in Staphylococcus aurEus) project aims to pave the way for the development of new antibiotics active against one of the main bacteria responsible for infections resistant to common treatments.
The strategy we have chosen to pursue is to “starve” Staphylococcus by attacking the molecular arsenal it uses to acquire iron, an essential element for the bacterium life and virulence, tearing it away from the host’s hemoglobin.
The project requires the integrated effort of microbiologists, biochemists, biophysicists and medicinal chemists, and involves researchers from the Universities of Parma, Urbino, Turin and Tuscia, and the National Research Council in Rome.