A new drug that images and kills antibiotic resistant superbugs has been found by researchers at the University of Sheffield and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).
The group, led by Professor Jim Thomas, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Chemistry, is screening new compounds synthesized by his PhD student Kirsty Smitten against antibiotic resistant gram-negative bacteria, such as disease-causing E. coli.
Gram-negative bacteria strains have the ability to cause infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection and blood infections. They are hard to cure since the bacteria cell wall is resistant to the entry of drugs into the microbe.
Antimicrobial resistance is already killing 25,000 people in the EU annually, and if this increasingly urgent threat is not tackled, it’s predicted by 2050 over 10 million individuals will die annually from antibiotic resistant infections.
There has not been a new drug for gram-negative bacteria for 50 years, and no candidate drugs have made it to clinical trials since 2010.
The new compound drug has a whole lot of promising possibilities. As explained by professor Jim Thomas, “Since the compound is fluorescent it will emit light when light is shone on it. This allows the uptake and its impact on bacteria to be traced using the sophisticated microscope methods that exist at RAL.
“This discovery could give rise to critical new therapies to life-threatening superbugs and the increasing threat posed by antibiotic resistance.”
The research at Sheffield and RAL has indicated the compound appears to have a number of mechanisms of action, which makes it harder for resistance to develop in the bacteria. The next phase of the research will be to try it out against other multi-resistant bacteria.
In a recent report on antimicrobial resistant pathogens, the World Health Organization listed a number of gram-negative bacteria at the head of its list, declaring new treatments for them were ‘Priority 1 Critical’ because they produce infections with high mortality rates, are fast becoming resistant to all current treatments and are frequently acquired in hospitals.
The study, released in the journal ACS Nano, details the new compound that kills gram-negative E. coli, including a multidrug resistant pathogen reported to cause millions of antibiotic resistant infections globally every year.
Source: University of Sheffield
