近年来,由于抗生素的不合理使用,导致新型耐药性细菌不断出现,严重危害人类健康,迫使我们急需发现新型抗菌药物来对抗耐药性细菌引起的感染。FtsZ蛋白是细菌分裂的必需蛋白,在细菌分裂增殖过程中起着关键作用。当FtsZ的功能受到抑制时,细菌的分裂增殖亦会被抑制,最终导致细菌死亡。FtsZ蛋白是目前热门的抗菌新靶点之一。本文回顾了FtsZ蛋白的生物学功能,总结了以FtsZ为靶标的新型抗菌分子的研究进展。

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection has become epidemic all over the world. To overcome the drug resistance problem, antibacterial agents targeting at new binding sites become critical. FtsZ, a bacterial cell division protein, has become a new attractive target for antibacterial agents’ discovery because it is the most important and conserved protein in bacterial cell division. Cell division will be inhibited when the functions of FtsZ were disturbed. In this article, the biological functions of FtsZ have been reviewed, and recent advances in discovery of FtsZ inhibitors were summarized.