SUBSTANCES TARGETED TO THE ACTIVE SITE OF THE FtsH PROTEIN, DNA ENCODING SAID SUBSTANCES AND USES THEREOF

摘要

The FtsH protein, which was originally identified as an hflB mutation, is highly conserved in all organisms and is the only known essential protease in E. coli. A number of protein substrates for the E. coli FtsH were identified, which include, inter alia, the heat shock sigma 32 factor, the phage lambda CII, CIII and Xis proteins. The present invention relates to a substance targeted to the C-terminal domain of FtsH which domain is essential for the biological function thereof, said substance being capable of competing or interacting with said domain with a naturally occurring substrate thereof and thus of inhibiting FtsH biological activity. As disclosed herein, the present invention relates in particular to inhibitors of FtsH which are derived from the CIII protein. Furthermore, the invention relates to a DNA sequence encoding a substance in accordance with the invention. The DNA sequence may be inserted into a suitable vehicle to form a DNA construct which is also in accordance with the invention and be transformed into target cells that will result in the alteration of the cell's behaviour. The substance, DNA sequence or DNA construct of the invention may be employed in different manners, for example, as antibiotics.