|Topo II: An Enzyme Target for Antibacterial and Cancer Drugs|
The veil has finally been lifted on an enzyme that is critical
to the process of DNA transcription and replication and is a
prime target of antibacterial and anticancer drugs. Researchers
at Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley, have
produced the first three-dimensional structural images of a DNA-
bound type II topoisomerase (topo II) that is responsible for
untangling coiled strands of the chromosome during cell
division. Preventing topo II from disentangling a cell's DNA is
fatal to the cell, which is why drugs that target topo II serve
as agents against bacterial infections and some forms of cancer.
This first ever structural image of topo II should help in the
development of future antibacterial and anticancer drugs that
are even more effective and carry fewer potential side effects.
Topoisomerase has been called nature's magician because it can
literally pass one DNA segment through another. It is an enzyme
that is divided i