Aminoglycosides are important clinical antibiotics but their molecular uptake mechanism is still not completely understood. Here we quantify and compare the passive transport of three aminoglycosides (kanamycin, gentamicin, and amikacin) across general or sugar specific porins of Escherichia coli (OmpF, OmpC, LamB and ChiP). Our analysis revealed that permeation of aminoglycosides (Kanamycin/Gentamycin/Amikacin) is about the same through ChiP (≈5/3/2 molecules/s), OmpF (≈10/15/<1 molecules/s) and OmpC (≈11/8/<1 molecules/s). In contrast, LamB of smaller pore diameter has no significant permeation (≤1/1/1 molecules/s, all values recalculated for a gradient of 10 uM). Biological assays confirmed the relevance of these translocations for antibiotic potency.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.