One alternative method for drug delivery involves
the use of siderophore-antibiotic conjugates. These compounds
represent a specific means by which potent antimicrobial
agents, covalently linked to iron-chelating siderophores,
can be actively transported across the outer membrane of
Gram-negative bacteria. These “Trojan Horse”
antibiotics may prove useful as an efficient means to combat
multi-drug–resistant bacterial infections. Here we
present the crystallographic structures of the natural
siderophore-antibiotic conjugate albomycin and the siderophore
phenylferricrocin, in complex with the active outer membrane
transporter FhuA from Escherichia coli. To our
knowledge, this represents the first structure of an antibiotic
bound to its cognate transporter. Albomycins are broad-host
range antibiotics that consist of a hydroxamate-type iron-chelating
siderophore, and an antibiotically active, thioribosyl
pyrimidine moiety. As observed with other hydroxamate-type
siderophores, the three-dimensional structure of albomycin
reveals an identical coordination geometry surrounding
the ferric iron atom. Unexpectedly, this antibiotic assumes
two conformational isomers in the binding site of FhuA,
an extended and a compact form. The structural information
derived from this study provides novel insights into the
diverse array of antibiotic moieties that can be linked
to the distal portion of iron-chelating siderophores and
offers a structural platform for the rational design of
hydroxamate-type siderophore-antibiotic conjugates.