Novel Molecular Approaches to Discover and Identify Bacterial Virulence Factors

The occurrence of new emerging infectious disease without efficient treatment opportunities and the increased numbers of multi-resistant primarily bacterial pathogen puts strong pressure on the identification of new drug targets and ultimately the development of new drugs and new types of treatment. There are few target groups that are of particular interest for the development of new drugs and treatment types: (1) surface molecules that play an important role in the host-pathogen interaction and (2) pathogenicity/virulence factors of the bacterial pathogen. Over the last decades new techniques were develop to decipher genomic and proteomic information to identify proteomic factors involved in pathogenicity and virulence. However, none were developed to discover the involvement of lipids in pathogenicity and virulence of bacterial infections mostly due to their specific chemical structure and inability to dissolve in solutions that are non-toxic to eukaryotic cells or are without stimulation of unspecific immune response of immune cells and systems. The purpose of this topic is to identify and validate new techniques to identify easier and faster potential virulence vectors as potential drug targets. In response to this need, Eckstein Diagnostics Inc. proposes the development of a procedure to identify lipids as potential virulence factors.