This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Avanza la lucha contra las infecciones bacterianas

It advances the fight against the infections bacterianas

04/04/2012

4 April 2012

An investigation directed by the Upper Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) has attained to describe the behaviour of a filament of the protein FtsZ. This molecule is the base of the structure from which a bacterium initiates his process of division and multiplies .

Thanks to a computational simulation, the team has discovered that only the extremes of these filaments are enzimáticamente active. Even if they add or they delete links of the filament, the enzymatic activity always remains in the extreme.

The protein FtsZ is homologous to the Tubulin in humans, since this is the manager of the cellular division. The researcher of the CSIC in the Centre of Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa (mixed centre of the CSIC and the Autonomous University of Madrid) Paulino Gómez-Doors, that has directed the investigation, explains: “Of the same way that the Tubulin is a preferential white in chemotherapy, since it promotes the multiplication of the cells cancerígenas; the protein FtsZ can be a target against the expansion of infections bacterianas”. Therefore, the finding can be used in the development of new antibiotics.