β-Lactamase-Mediated Fragmentation: Historical Perspectives and Recent Advances in Diagnostics, Imaging, and Antibacterial Design

The discovery of β-lactam (BL) antibiotics in the early 20th century represented a remarkable advancement in human medicine, allowing for the widespread treatment of infectious diseases that had plagued humanity throughout history. Yet, this triumph was followed closely by the emergence of β-lactamase (BLase), a bacterial weapon to destroy BLs. BLase production is a primary mechanism of resistance to BL antibiotics, and the spread of new homologues with expanded hydrolytic activity represents a pressing threat to global health. Nonetheless, researchers have developed strategies that take advantage of this defense mechanism, exploiting BLase activity in the creation of probes, diagnostic tools, and even novel antibiotics selective for resistant organisms. Early discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s demonstrating that certain BLs expel a leaving group upon BLase cleavage have spawned an entire field dedicated to employing this selective release mechanism, termed BLase-mediated fragmentation. Chemical probes have been developed for imaging and studying BLase-expressing organisms in the laboratory and diagnosing BL-resistant infections in the clinic. Perhaps most promising, new antibiotics have been developed that use BLase-mediated fragmentation to selectively release cytotoxic chemical "warheads" at the site of infection, reducing off-target effects and allowing for the repurposing of putative antibiotics against resistant organisms. This Review will provide some historical background to the emergence of this field and highlight some exciting recent reports that demonstrate the promise of this unique release mechanism.