Antibiotic susceptibility of mammalian mitochondrial translation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2005.09.103
• Publication Date: 2005-11-03T12:48:02Z
• Authors: Li Zhang; Ng Ching Ging; Taeko Komoda; Takao Hanada; Tsutomu Suzuki; Kimitsuna Watanabe
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; E. coli; Peptide Elongation Factors; Ribosome; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Mitochondria; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Antibiotics; Protein Biosynthesis; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Escherichia coli; Animals; Cattle; Protein synthesis; Ribosomes

All medically useful antibiotics should have the potential to distinguish between target microbes (bacteria) and host cells. Although many antibiotics that target bacterial protein synthesis show little effect on the translation machinery of the eukaryotic cytoplasm, it is unclear whether these antibiotics target or not the mitochondrial translation machinery. We employed an in vitro translation system from bovine mitochondria, which consists of mitochondrial ribosomes and mitochondrial elongation factors, to estimate the effect of antibiotics on mitichondrial protein synthesis. Tetracycline and thiostrepton showed similar inhibitory effects on both Escherichia coli and mitochondrial protein synthesis. The mitochondrial system was more resistant to tiamulin, macrolides, virginiamycin, fusidic acid and kirromycin than the E. coli system. The present results, taken together with atomic structure of the ribosome, may provide useful information for the rational design of new antibiotics having less adverse effects in humans and animals.