TY - JOUR A1 - Eisenberg, Philip A1 - Albert, Leon A1 - Teuffel, Jonathan A1 - Zitzow, Eric A1 - Michaelis, Claudia A1 - Jarick, Jane A1 - Sehlke, Clemens A1 - Große, Lisa A1 - Bader, Nicole A1 - Nunes-Alves, Ariane A1 - Kreikemeyer, Bernd A1 - Schindelin, Hermann A1 - Wade, Rebecca C. A1 - Fiedler, Tomas T1 - The Non-phosphorylating Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase GapN Is a Potential New Drug Target in Streptococcus pyogenes T2 - Frontiers in Microbiology N2 - The strict human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes causes infections of varying severity, ranging from self-limiting suppurative infections to life-threatening diseases like necrotizing fasciitis or streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Here, we show that the non-phosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase GapN is an essential enzyme for S. pyogenes. GapN converts glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate into 3-phosphoglycerate coupled to the reduction of NADP to NADPH. The knock-down of gapN by antisense peptide nucleic acids (asPNA) significantly reduces viable bacterial counts of S. pyogenes laboratory and macrolide-resistant clinical strains in vitro. As S. pyogenes lacks the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway, GapN appears to be the major NADPH source for the bacterium. Accordingly, other streptococci that carry a complete pentose phosphate pathway are not prone to asPNA-based gapN knock-down. Determination of the crystal structure of the S. pyogenes GapN apo-enzyme revealed an unusual cis-peptide in proximity to the catalytic binding site. Furthermore, using a structural modeling approach, we correctly predicted competitive inhibition of S. pyogenes GapN by erythrose 4-phosphate, indicating that our structural model can be used for in silico screening of specific GapN inhibitors. In conclusion, the data provided here reveal that GapN is a potential target for antimicrobial substances that selectively kill S. pyogenes and other streptococci that lack the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway. KW - X-ray crystallography KW - homology modeling KW - computational docking KW - PNA (peptide nucleic acid) KW - NADPH KW - drug target KW - GapN Y1 - 2022 UR - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/26286 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262869 SN - 1664-302X VL - 13 ER -