RNA decay: a novel therapeutic target in bacteria

The need for novel antibiotics is greater now than perhaps any time since the pre‐antibiotic era. Indeed, the recent collapse of most pharmaceutical antibacterial groups, combined with the emergence of hypervirulent and pan‐antibiotic‐resistant bacteria have, in effect, created a ‘perfect storm’ that has severely compromised infection treatment options and led to dramatic increases in the incidence and severity of bacterial infections. To put simply, it is imperative that we develop new classes of antibiotics for the therapeutic intervention of bacterial infections. In that regard, RNA degradation is an essential biological process that has not been exploited for antibiotic development. Herein we discuss the factors that govern bacterial RNA degradation, highlight members of this machinery that represent attractive antimicrobial drug development targets and describe the use of high‐throughput screening as a means of developing antimicrobials that target these enzymes. Such agents would represent first‐in‐class antibiotics that would be less apt to inactivation by currently encountered enzymatic antibiotic‐resistance determinants. WIREs RNA 2012, 3:443–454. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1110 This article is categorized under: RNA Turnover and Surveillance > Turnover/Surveillance Mechanisms RNA in Disease and Development > RNA in Disease