Newly discovered antibiotic can kill off drug resistant bacteria

We are right to be worried about antibiotic resistance breeding superbugs.  But research points to hope that a new synthetic form of the antibiotic teixobactin can neutralise drug-resistant bacteria. Resistance to antibiotics is a real threat. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says, “The threat of a time when antibiotics will fail to serve their […]

We are right to be worried about antibiotic resistance breeding superbugs. 

But research points to hope that a new synthetic form of the antibiotic teixobactin can neutralise drug-resistant bacteria.

Resistance to antibiotics is a real threat.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says, “The threat of a time when antibiotics will fail to serve their roles in combating infectious diseases is currently the biggest fear of the entire global health system.”

Infections are becoming harder to treat with existing antibiotics, and the World Health Organisation raised concern that no new treatment has been developed in the last 50 years.

Three years ago, scientists discovered that a natural antibiotic called teixobactin might have the potential to kill off  staphylococcus resistant to methicilin and enterococcus resistant to vancomycin.

Those are only two of six pathogens that cause a quarter of infections.

A team of researchers created a synthetic version of teixobactin and successfully treated infection in mice.

The new antibiotic has been called “game-changing,” and the findings may “lead to the first new class of antibiotic drug in 30 years,” according to the authors of the researched published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Ishwar Singh, a drug design specialist and senior lecturer in biological chemistry at the University of Lincoln’s School of Pharmacy in the United Kingdom, and colleagues studied the structure of teixobactin.

They found key amino acids that, when replaced, made the antibiotic easier to replicate into 10 synthetic analogs.

“These [analogs], showed highly potent antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, [methicilin resistant staphylococcus and vancomycin resistant enterococcus],” wrote the authors.

Further tests in mouse models — carried out by a team at the Singapore Eye Research Institute in Bukit Merah — revealed that one of the analogs successfully treated a case of Staphylococcus aureus keratitis.

 Specifically, using the synthetic drug “decreased the bacterial bioburden [by more than 99 percent] and corneal edema significantly as compared to untreated mouse corneas.”

The researchers write, “Collectively, our results have established the high therapeutic potential of a teixobactin [analog] in attenuating bacterial infections and associated severities in vivo.”

Singh explains the significance of the findings, saying, “When teixobactin was discovered it was groundbreaking in itself as a new antibiotic which kills bacteria without detectable resistance including superbugs such as [methicilin resistant staphylococcus aureus], but natural teixobactin was not created for human use.”

“A significant amount of work remains,” continues Singh, “in the development of teixobactin as a therapeutic antibiotic for human use,” adding that “we are probably around six to ten years off a drug that doctors can prescribe to patients.”

Still, “this is a real step in the right direction and now opens the door for improving our in vivo [analogs],” he says.