The advent of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the frequent and excessive abuse of ventilators have made MRSA pneumonia an inordinate threat to human health. Appropriate antibacterial therapies are crucial, including the use of lysostaphin as an alternative to antibiotics. To explore the potential use of lysostaphin as a therapeutic agent for MRSA pneumonia, mice were intr...

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common causes of nosocomial infections and its resistance to antibiotics is a global concern. Lysostaphin is an antimicrobial agent belonging to a major class of antimicrobial peptides and proteins known as the bacteriocins. It exhibits a high degree of anti-staphylococcal bacteriolytic activity. OBJECTIVES In this study, high level of recom...

BACKGROUND The nisin-controlled gene expression system NICE of Lactococcus lactis is one of the most widely used expression systems in Gram-positive bacteria. Despite its widespread use, no optimization of the culture conditions and nisin induction has been carried out to obtain maximum yields. As a model system induced production of lysostaphin, an antibacterial protein (mainly against Staphyl...

The kinetics of cell-wall hydrolysis of Staphylococcus aureus (strain Cowan I) by lysostaphin was studied by turbidity, quantitative determination of hexosamines, phosphorus, total proteins, protein A and by electron microscopy. In our experimental conditions, the lytic activity of lysostaphin was very fast and no characteristic cell-wall structures could be seen after five minutes. The release...

Since 1960, Schindler and Schuhardt have reported several studies on a unique substance which rapidly and specifically lyses staphylococci but has no effect on bacteria of other genera.`' This agent, termed lysostaphin, contains at least two enzymes, a peptidase and an N-acetyl-glucosaminidase.' The specific antistaphylococcal effect is thought to be due to the peptidase which cleaves genus-spe...

Lysostaphin is a zinc-metalloenzyme which has a molecular weight of 25,000 when determined by sedimentation equilibrium in dilute aqueous salt solutions. Combination of the sedimentation coefficient, sZO,lo = 2.32, and diffusion coefficient, DBo,w = 7.83, gave a native molecular weight of 25,800. Sedimentation equilibrium of the protein in 6 M guanidine hydrochloride, with and without 2-mercapt...

Staphylococcus simulans bv. staphylolyticus secretes lysostaphin, a bacteriocin that cleaves pentaglycine cross bridges in the cell wall of Staphylococcus aureus. The C-terminal cell wall-targeting domain (CWT) of lysostaphin is required for selective binding of this bacteriocin to S. aureus cells; however, the molecular target for this was unknown. We used purified green fluorescent protein fu...

Lysostaphin is an antimicrobial agent belonging to a major class of antimicrobial peptides and proteins known as the bacteriocins. Bacteriocins are bacterial antimicrobial peptides which generally exhibit bactericidal activity against other bacteria. Bacteriocin production is a self-protection mechanism that helps the microorganisms to survive in their natural habitats. Bacteriocins are current...

UNLABELLED Staphylococcus simulans biovar staphylolyticus lysostaphin efficiently cleaves Staphylococcus aureus cell walls. The protein is in late clinical trials as a topical anti-staphylococcal agent, and can be used to prevent staphylococcal growth on artificial surfaces. Moreover, the gene has been both stably engineered into and virally delivered to mice or livestock to obtain resistance a...

21 P128 is an anti-staphylococcal protein consisting of Staphylococcus aureus phage K derived tail 22 associated muralytic enzyme (TAME) catalytic domain (Lys16) fused with cell wall binding 23 SH3b domain of lysostaphin. In order to understand the mechanism of action and emergence of 24 resistance to P128, we isolated mutants of Staphylococcus spp, including MRSA, resistant to 25 P128. In addi...