Discovery of a new microbiome-encoded enzyme that inactivates a common diabetes drug (IMAGE)
Caption
Princeton University researchers discovered that microbes living in the human digestive tract can inactivate the antidiabetic drug acarbose, which may affect the drug’s efficacy in patients and impact on the microbiome. By tracing the mechanism, the team identified a new microbiome-encoded enzyme, called Mak1, that modifies acarbose, causing its inactivation. This diagram depicts the crystal structure of Mak1 bound to the drug acarbose (black, red and blue stick structure).
Credit
Model available on https://rcsb.org. Image by Caitlin Sedwick for Princeton University.
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