Dual Effect of Synthetic Aminoglycosides: Antibacterial Activity against Bacillus anthracis and Inhibition of Anthrax Lethal Factor

Defence against bioterrorism: Recent events have created an urgent need for therapeutic strategies to treat anthrax, an infectious disease caused by the toxigenic bacterium Bacillus anthracis. A new class of aminoglycosides (see picture) are powerful inhibitors under physiological conditions of the anthrax lethal factor, which has a major role in the disease, and function simultaneously as antibiotics against B. anthracis.