Alliance for the Exploration of Pipelines for Inhibitors of Carbapenemases

Resistance to antimicrobial agents, especially to carbapenems, is an increasing global concern. A cutting edge strategy to combat this phenomenon is the discovery of carbapenemase inhibitors through computational analyses. This approach requires expertise across a wide range of fields including clinical and basic microbiology, infectious diseases, computational biology, bioinformatics, (bio)chemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, toxicology, and epidemiology in order to properly define search parameters and lead to a targeted strategy. This highlights the importance of building a network to facilitate knowledge exchange between these fields and form a new synergistic collaboration that can achieve much more than each of its individual elements. The aim of this network is therefore to create a venue for the exchange of ideas and knowledge to bridge the gaps between different research groups and develop the best strategy for discovering carbapenemase inhibitors. The following general objectives will be implemented: 1) To define the best biochemical, molecular, and physical parameters to be used for data mining for carbapenemase inhibitors; and which databases are most suitable; 2) To determine how to translate the computational findings into experiments aimed at combating carbapenem resistance in human and animal infections; and 3) To determine the cost-efficiency of the strategy. The proposed consortium contains experts from across all the required fields, giving us confidence that we will achieve these objectives. Moreover, our findings could possibly have implications for antimicrobial interventions against carbapenemase-producing organisms in a OneHealth approach, as well as possibly posing a lesser economic burden as compared to other strategies.