ABC transporters in bacteria : multidrug resistance is not futile

Orateur : Jean-Michel JAULT (Institute of Biology and Chemistry of Proteins, Lyon)

For the last thirty years, multidrug transporters have drawn much attention as possible major players in the resistance mechanisms allowing pathogenic bacteria to escape therapeutic treatments. Yet, the implication of these transporters has been hampered by the multifaceted aspect of the antibiotic resistance which often blurred their crucial role in the overall mechanism. Although originally characterized as ion-motive driven pumps, a new class of multidrug bacterial transporters has emerged in the last decade. These transporters expel antibiotics at the expense of ATP hydrolysis. These multidrug transporters belong to the ABC (“ATP-Binding Cassette”) superfamily and, importantly, are closely related to human multidrug transporters overexpressed in cancer cells and involved in resistance to anti-cancer drugs. In this presentation, I shall summarize the current knowledge on the functioning mechanism of multidrug ABC exporters with a special emphasis on the bacterial transporters.

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