SecA: a potential antimicrobial target.

There is a consensus in the medical profession of the pressing need for novel antimicrobial agents due to issues related to drug resistance. In practice, solutions to this problem to a large degree lie with the identification of new and vital targets in bacteria and subsequently designing their inhibitors. We consider SecA a very promising antimicrobial target. In this review, we compile and analyze information available on SecA to show that inhibition of SecA has a multitude of consequences. Furthermore, we discuss issues critical to the design and evaluation of SecA inhibitors.