Together with colleagues in Parma and Tuscia, Giulia Paris and Ben Luisi have published an article in PNAS, looking at iron acquisition strategies in Staphylococcus aureus.
S. aureus is a human pathogen whose virulence depends on iron acquisition. The paper presents the structure of full-length IsdH and identifies a previously unrecognized mechanism by which its architecture engages hemoglobin and enables heme release. It integrates structural, kinetic, and single-molecule approaches to refines our understanding of host–pathogen interactions in iron acquisition and highlight opportunities for targeting this pathway in antimicrobial strategies.
The work 'provides an integrated framework for understanding how full-length IsdH coordinates substrate binding, mechanical engagement, and heme transfer, thereby expanding our comprehension of iron acquisition strategies in S. aureus and setting the stage for rational efforts to inhibit this essential heme extraction pathway.’
Read the paper ‘Refining the mechanism of heme acquisition from free hemoglobin by Staphylococcus aureus IsdH’.