Novel Sortase A (SrtA) inhibitors interfere with the formation of staphylococcal biofilms

Staphylococcus aureus, due to its wide arsenal of virulence factors, is a very versatile pathogen responsible for a wide variety of infectious diseases. The virulence factors include the cell-wall associated proteins that have a direct role in the first stage of pathogenesis. The Sortase A (SrtA) transpeptidase is responsible for covalent anchoring to the cell wall of various surface proteins and it is considered a good target to design new antivirulence agents. In this study, we report the identification of an inhibitor of SrtA afforded from the random screening of a small molecular library of around 150 synthetic compounds, through a high throughput assay by using the standard Dabcyl-QALP…