The bacterial phosphotransferase system as a potential vehicle for the entry of novel antibiotics.

During the past twenty-nine years, not a single class of antimicrobial agents has been discovered that has led to new approved human drugs. Despite a dramatic increase in the potency of existing classes, the need for new effective antimicrobial agents continues. The bacterial phosphotransferase system (PTS) offers the possibility of providing new opportunities for the discovery of important agents. This system offers a vehicle for entry into infecting bacteria and pathways for the initiation of metabolism of such agents. Antimicrobial agents which would use the PTS may be found which are active on both growing and sessile bacterial forms, and due to the lack of a eukaryotic PTS counterpart, such analogues may be expected to be non-toxic to the animal host.