Antisense oligonucleotide antibiotics complementary to the macromolecular synthesis operon, methods of treating bacterial infections and methods for identification of bacteria

A method of identifying the presence or absence of bacteria in a specimen, comprising the steps of:

• hybridizing a homologous antisense oligonucleotide of about 10 to 29 mer to a mRNA transcribed from a macromolecular synthesis (MMS) operon;
• and
• measuring the amount of said hybridization, wherein hybridization indicates the presence of bacteria and a lack of hybridization indicates bacteria are not present, and wherein said homologous antisense oligonucleotide hybridizes to mRNA transcribed from the MMS operon of bacteria.

An assay for detecting the presence of bacteria in a sample selected from the group of clinical specimen, food specimen, and water specimen comprising:

• hybridizing a homologous antisense oligonucleotide of about 10 to 29 mer to a mRNA transcribed from a macromolecular synthesis (MMS) operon or single stranded bacterial DNA;
• and
• measuring the amount of said hybridization, wherein hybridization indicates the presence of bacteria, and a lack of hybridization indicates the absence of bacteria, and wherein said homologous antisense oligonucleotide hybridizes to the mRNA transcribed from the MMS operon or the single stranded DNA of the MMS operon region of bacteria.

An assay for detecting and identifying the presence of a specific bacteria in a sample selected from the group of clinical specimen, food specimen and water specimen comprising:

• hybridizing a unique intergenic antisense oligonucleotide of about 10-29 mer to a mRNA transcribed from a macromolecular synthesis (MMS) operon or single-stranded bacteria DNA;
• and measuring the amount of said hybridization, wherein hybridization indicates the presence of said specific bacteria, and a lack of hybridization indicates the absence of said specific bacteria, and wherein each unique intergenic antisense oligonucleotide only hybridizes to the unique intergenic sequence of the MMS operon of a specific bacteria.