Scientists have found a new route to attack antibiotic-resistant bacteria by blocking the mechanism they use to build their exterior coating.
The bugs construct this defensive barrier in a complex process that depends on a key dual-protein molecule.
Its structure has been mapped using the intense X-rays of the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire.
Researchers tell the journal Nature that drugs can now be developed to interfere with this LptDE protein.
“We identified how LptDE builds up the outer membrane,” explained Prof Changjiang Dong, from the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School.