Degrasyn exhibits antibiotic activity against multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by modifying several essential cysteines.
Kyu Myung LeePhilipp LeStephan A SieberStephan M HackerPublished in: Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) (2020)
Degrasyn inhibits deubiquitination enzymes and has anti-cancer activity. We here show that it also exhibits antimicrobial activity against multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Structure activity relationship studies demonstrate an important role of the electrophilic α-cyanoacrylamide moiety as a Michael acceptor. A suite of chemical proteomic techniques unraveled binding of this moiety to various cysteine residues of essential proteins in a reversibly covalent manner.