Antimicrobial Agents That Inhibit the Outer Membrane Assembly Machines of Gram-Negative Bacteria

Gram-negative pathogens, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii, pose a serious threat to public health worldwide, due to high rates of antibiotic resistance and the lack of development of novel antimicrobial agents targeting Gram-negative bacteria. The outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria is a unique architecture that acts as a potent permeability barrier against toxic molecules, such as antibiotics. The OM is composed of phospholipids, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), outer membrane β-barrel proteins (OMP), and lipoproteins. These components are synthesized in the cytoplasm or in the inner membrane, and are then selectively transported to the OM by the specific transport machines, including the Lol, BAM, and Lpt pathways. In this review, we summarize recent studies on the assembly systems of OM components and analyze studies for the development of inhibitors that target these systems. These analyses show that OM assembly machines have the potential to be a novel attractive drug target of Gram-negative bacteria.