A Lambda-Exonuclease SELEX Method for Generating Aptamers to Bacterial Targets.

Nucleic acid aptamers are short sequences of single-stranded (ss) DNA or RNA that fold into a three-dimensional shape with useful binding properties. Traditionally, these properties have included specific recognition and binding of ions, small-molecules, proteins, and enzyme targets. Increasingly though, aptamers are being raised against complex subcellular or cellular targets. These broader-affinity aptamers can be usefully employed for detection, labeling, or therapeutic targeting of intact/living cells, whether prokaryotic or eukaryotic. Aptamers are usually developed from a random-sequence oligonucleotide library by repeated rounds of selection and amplification, a process named "systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment" (SELEX). We describe here a widely applicable cell-SELEX method for raising aptamers against bacteria, using Escherichia coli strain HB101 as an example. Our cell-SELEX method uses a cycle of four stages: (1) incubation of a fluorescently labeled random-sequence ssDNA library with bacterial cells; (2) separation of cell-associated ssDNA from free ssDNA; (3) amplification of bound ssDNA by PCR, and (4) use of lambda-exonuclease to selectively regenerate ssDNA for further rounds of selection.

Identification of Novel Inhibitors of Escherichia coli DNA Ligase (LigA).

Present in all organisms, DNA ligases catalyse the formation of a phosphodiester bond between a 3' hydroxyl and a 5' phosphate, a reaction that is essential for maintaining genome integrity during replication and repair. Eubacterial DNA ligases use NAD+ as a cofactor and possess low sequence and structural homology relative to eukaryotic DNA ligases which use ATP as a cofactor. These key differences enable specific targeting of bacterial DNA ligases as an antibacterial strategy. In this study, four small molecule accessible sites within functionally important regions of Escherichia coli ligase (EC-LigA) were identified using in silico methods. Molecular docking was then used to screen for small molecules predicted to bind to these sites. Eight candidate inhibitors were then screened for inhibitory activity in an in vitro ligase assay. Five of these (geneticin, chlorhexidine, glutathione (reduced), imidazolidinyl urea and 2-(aminomethyl)imidazole) showed dose-dependent inhibition of EC-LigA with half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) in the micromolar to millimolar range (11-2600 µM). Two (geneticin and chlorhexidine) were predicted to bind to a region of EC-LigA that has not been directly investigated previously, raising the possibility that there may be amino acids within this region that are important for EC-LigA activity or that the function of essential residues proximal to this region are impacted by inhibitor interactions with this region. We anticipate that the identified small molecule binding sites and inhibitors could be pursued as part of an antibacterial strategy targeting bacterial DNA ligases.