Winter 2020 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
Flipping the switch on infection
Most bacterial infections follow a similar path: you get sick, a doctor prescribes antibiotics that target the infection, you get better. But what if scientists could switch off the infection before it started?
Cat Hofacker, BSJ '18 | February 20, 2020
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That鈥檚 what OHIO Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jennifer Hines and her research team are proposing. Hines studies ribonucleic acid, RNA, the molecule in all living things that carries out the instructions for replicating genetic information in DNA. Scientists now believe RNA has a much greater role to play in drug discovery.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still at the dawn of an era, but so much is being discovered,鈥 Hines says.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotic drugs has been a growing concern among scientists and health care professionals. Every time a drug doesn鈥檛 kill off all the infectious bacteria, the ones that survive reproduce and adapt. And because 鈥渂acteria are so readily adaptable鈥 and reproduce so quickly, Hines says, they outpace the rate of the invention of new drugs.
RNA offers a potential solution through its role in gene transcription, an action that uses riboswitches, small molecules that control gene expression. Hines鈥 research is focused on the T box riboswitch, which she says is like a light switch in a darkened room, left off until someone needs a light.
鈥淚f we can find a drug that keeps that switch turned off when the bacteria鈥檚 trying to turn it on, we can kill [the bacteria],鈥 Hines explains.
Fortunately, the T box riboswitch controls many different genes in lots of bacteria.
鈥淵ou could imagine developing something that will kill all these different bacteria with an essential gene regulated by the T box,鈥 she says. 鈥淭hat overlap could also make it harder for bacteria to become resistant.鈥
Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Jennifer Hines (RIGHT) and her team are developing methods to combat drug-resistant bacteria by harnessing some of the human body鈥檚 most foundational built-in technology. Photo by Jonathan Adams, BSVC 鈥13
To create such a drug, Hines鈥 group must test how different molecules interact with the T box riboswitch. For this task, they use the Ohio Supercomputer Center鈥檚 high-powered processors that 鈥済o through many more calculations in a fraction of the time鈥 it would take her single lab computer to complete just one, Hines says.
Hines and her team do this work online from their lab on the Athens Campus. Students access the center鈥檚 web interface on their laptops, which means more molecules are analyzed and 鈥渕ore students [are] involved in the computational work,鈥 Hines says.
Even then, she says, it will take a long time to run the billions of calculations required to design, synthesize, and test the small molecules. Students continue to plug away at the project at Hines鈥 lab in the biochemistry building. While this and other groundbreaking research is occurring, OHIO is scheduled to open a new chemistry building by Clippinger Laboratories in summer 2020, where more state-of-the-art research and collaboration for faculty and students will transpire.
With such resources, the possibilities for drug discovery are far-reaching.
鈥淭he knowledge is just exploding,鈥 she says.
Feature photograph: Professor Jennifer Hines utilizes OHIO鈥檚 Biochemistry Research Facility on West State Street to develop methods to combat drug-resistant bacteria. Photo by Jonathan Adams, BSVC 鈥13
