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To revitalize the antibiotic pipeline, it is critical to identify and validate new antimicrobial targets. An uncharted area of antibiotic discovery can be explored by inhibiting nutrient biosynthesis. Herein, we investigate the potential of inhibiting biotin biosynthesis in monotherapy and combination therapy approaches to treat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. In chapter 2, we validate biotin biosynthesis as a viable target for Gram-negative pathogens. Historically, biotin biosynthesis was overlooked as a target in Gram-negative pathogens as there was no observed fitness cost associated with its inhibition in standard mouse infection models. We discovered traditional mouse models do not accurately represent the biotin levels in humans. We developed an innovative mouse model to account for this discrepancy, validating biotin biosynthesis as an antimicrobial target in the presence of human-mimicking levels of biotin. Exploiting this sensitivity, we show that an inhibitor of biotin biosynthesis, MAC13772, is efficacious against Acinetobacter baumannii in a systemic murine infection model. In chapter 3, we continue to investigate the potential of targeting biotin biosynthesis in a combination therapy approach. In this work, we identify the ability of MAC13772 to synergize with colistin exclusively against colistin-resistant pathogens. The first committed step of fatty acid biosynthesis requires biotin as a cofactor; therefore, it is indirectly inhibited through the action of MAC13772. We propose that the inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis leads to changes in membrane fluidity and phospholipid composition, restoring colistin sensitivity. The combination of a fatty acid biosynthesis inhibitor and colistin proved superior to either treatment alone against mcr-1 expressing Klebsiella pneumoniae and colistin-resistant Escherichia coli murine infection models. Together, these data suggest that biotin biosynthesis is a robust antibiotic target for further development in monotherapy and combination therapy approaches. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Biosensors are devices that use biological components to detect important analytes. Biosensing systems have various applications in areas such as medicine, environmental monitoring, and process control. Classical biosensors are often based on bacteria or purified enzymes that have limitations on efficiency or stability. I have developed several new biosensors to overcome these disadvantages. Two preliminary biosensors were first created based on the extremely strong and specific interaction between biotin and (strept)avidin. Both biosensors showed high sensitivity and reliability for measuring biotin with detection limits of 50-1000 pg/ml and 20-100 ng/ml, respectively. Following these, a new biosensor was developed by coupling a mobile, functionalized microsurface with cell-free expression approaches. This biosensor demonstrated a dynamic range of 1- 100 ng/ml. In addition, I also explored the possibility of combining these biosensing systems with engineered living cells. By leveraging the tools of synthetic biology, a genetic circuit was designed, constructed, and inserted into bacteria for enhanced biotin biosynthesis in vivo. Upon induction, a 17-fold increase in biotin production was measured in the engineered cells in comparison to wild type cells using the biosensors created herein. These new biosensors, particularly the mobile biosensing modality, form a building block for advanced biosensing and drug delivery systems due to enhancements in mobility and specificity. In the future, these biosensing and cellular production systems could impact a range of fields ranging from biomedicine to environmental monitoring. / Master of Science

Chez les plantes, l'oxyde nitrique (NO) est impliqué dans de nombreux processusbiologiques tels que la germination ou le développement racinaire et intervient dans les réponses àdivers stress biotiques ou abiotiques. Ainsi, en situation de stress en fer, la production de NOconstitue un événement précoce dans la voie de signalisation qui aboutit à l'induction desferritines. Les cibles du NO demeurent toutefois mal connues, mais il est établi qu'un effet majeurest la S-nitrosylation de cystéines dans les protéines. Dans ce travail, nous avons cherché àidentifier les protéines (et les cystéines) qui constituent les cibles moléculaires du NO dans deuxsituations de stress abiotique chez Arabidopsis thaliana. Dans ce but, une démarche deprotéomique post-traductionnelle dédiée, fondée sur la méthode classique dite du «Biotin-switch»(BS), a été privilégiée pour l'identification des protéines nitrosylées. Par ailleurs, afin de pouvoirévaluer les variations de nitrosylation et analyser des réponses physiologiques, nous avonsintroduit une dimension quantitative en combinant le BS à un marquage des thiols par des réactifsdifférant par la présence d'isotopes lourds (Isotope coded affinity tag, ICAT). La méthode ainsidéveloppée (BS-ICAT) a permis de caractériser des variations de nitrosylation de protéines lorsd'un stress ferrique et d'un stress salin. A côté de l'identification de cibles potentielles du NO, lesrésultats ont également attiré l'attention sur certaines limites du BS. Sur cette base, la méthodeBS-ICAT a été utilisée pour revisiter quantitativement le BS. Nous avons montré que le blocagedes thiols libres, étape initiale-clé fondant le BS, n'est que partiel et conduit à l'apparition de fauxpositifs. Simultanément, de nouveaux contrôles de spécificité ont été éprouvés. La combinaisonBS-ICAT constitue l'une des toutes premières tentatives pour la caractérisation quantitative àlarge échelle de réponses de nitrosylation. A côté d'un premier répertoire de sites de Snitrosylationchez les plantes et de l'identification de candidats potentiellement impliqués dans lesréponses aux stress en fer et en sel, l'analyse quantitative permet de proposer une utilisation du BSintégrant ses limites de façon plus contrôlée. Cette analyse souligne le besoin de méthodesalternatives où le marquage soit réalisé directement sur les nitrosothiols. / In plants, nitric oxide (NO) is involved in many biological processes such as germination or roots development and in responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Thereby, in iron stress situations, NO production is the earliest signaling pathway event leading to ferritins induction. NO targets remain largely unknown but it is now stated that cysteine S-nitrosylation in proteins is the main NO consequence. The present work aims at identifying NO target proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana in the context of two abiotic stresses. For this purpose, a posttranslational proteomics approach based on the classical “Biotin-Switch” method (BS) was favored to identify nitrosylated proteins. Moreover, in order to estimate changes in nitrosylation and analyze physiological responses, a quantitative dimension combining the BS and a differential isotope based labeling of thiol with the ICAT reagents (Isotope Coded Affinity Tag) was introduced. This method named BS-ICAT allowed us to characterize quantitative variations of S-nitrosylation during an iron and a salt stress. Beside the identification of potential NO targets, our results highlighted limitations of BS method through incomplete free thiol blockage, the key initial step in BS, leading to false positive identifications. Simultaneously, new control have been introduced to test the specificity of the labeling. The combination of BS and ICAT is one the first attempt to quantitatively characterize the NO response at a large scale. This quantitative analysis results in one of the first repertoire of S-nitrosylation sites in plant proteins under abiotic stress and highly suggests a careful use of BS under strict control conditions. Moreover this analysis re-enforces the emerging need for alternative methods where the labeling molecules react directly with the nitrosothiols.

The design of versatile biohybrid nanosized materials has revealed itself as a promising avenue towards biomedical applications in today´s life sciences. In this regard the combination of components of synthetic and natural origin facilitates an applicability which is supposed to be far beyond the sum of their single components. These biohybrid structures (BHS) can be built by a huge variety of building blocks including solid or soft nanoparticles, peptides/proteins, polynucleotides or low molecular weight drugs. Along with the latter the attachment of biologically active entities or imaging moieties, e. g. enzymes, fluorescence markers or targeting motifs display thereby a key step towards the development of carrier systems for drug delivery purposes. Among the soft nanoparticles especially dendritic polymers such as perfectly branched dendrimers or hyperbranched polymers are considered as ideal building blocks, since they allow an easy tailoring of crucial properties such as solubility, biocompatibility or bioactivity by means of surface functionalization. Especially in the field of targeted drug delivery the crucial role of sizes and size distributions of carriers has been highlighted recently, since it critically influences important factors such as circulation time or biodistribution within the body. The ability of avidin to form high molecular weight associates with biotinylated macromolecules as well as its inherent properties makes it a suitable candidate for passive and active targeting in combination with biotinylated (bio-)polymers. Furthermore, along with the covalent attachment of bioactive moieties, non-covalent attachment is a frequently used approach, because it is assumed to only require stoichiometric mixing. In context of the latter molecular recognition processes such as the avidin-biotin, β-cyclodextrin-adamantane or Ni(II)-NTA-histidine-tag interactions have shown to be fruitful strategies for the attachment of bioactive entities. The overall aim of this work was to fabricate BHS based on dendritic glycopolymers with varied sizes in the nano- and micrometer range as models for biomedical applications e. g. carriers for drug delivery. Therefore the molecular recognition of avidin with biotin derivatives and β-cyclodextrin with adamantane derivatives was utilized in order to tailor final sizes, functionality or catalytic activity of those BHS.

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