Fosfomycin permeation through the outer membrane porin OmpF (Biophysical Journal)

Fosfomycin is a frequently prescribed drug in the treatment of acute urinary tract infections. It enters the bacterial cytoplasm and inhibits the biosynthesis of peptidoglycans by targeting the MurA enzyme. Despite extensive pharmacological studies and clinical use, the permeability across the bacterial outer membrane of fosfomycin is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the fosfomycin permeability across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria by electrophysiology experiments as well as by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations including free energy and applied-field techniques.