Targeting Infectious Diseases

Our main research interest is to develop updated therapies targeting infectious diseases, in particular, drugs with new mechanisms of action to combat the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

One of the strategies for the development of new antibiotics is to design compounds capable of interfering with essential processes for the survival of the bacteria. This possibility has been studied in our research group in the last few years. It consists in the design and the synthesis of compounds whose mode of action is based on the selective and the effective inhibition of two essential enzymes of the shikimic acid pathway (Scheme 1), dehydroquinase (aroD/aroQ gene) and shikimate kinase (aroK gene).

Particularly, we have been focusing in two important pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis and Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of gastric and duodenal ulcer and it has also been classified as type I carcinogen.