U.S. Team Develops Compound That Destroys 300 Drug-Resistant Bacteria

It has become increasingly difficult to treat infections as the bacteria that cause them are becoming resistant to antibiotics. However, a drug candidate called fabimycin has shown its potency against more than 300 drug-resistant clinical isolates, the American Chemical Society (ACS) reported for SciTechDaily.

Photo Insert: Paul Hergenrother and his colleagues wanted to design a drug that could infiltrate the defenses of gram-negative bacteria and treat infections while leaving other helpful microbes intact.

The bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTI) have also become more resistant to many antibiotics but the discovery of a new molecule that suppresses drug-resistant bacteria in lab experiments as well as among mice with pneumonia and UTI may eventually hasten the treatment of millions of patients.

Researchers said in a study published in ACS Central Science that fabimycin may one day be used to treat severe bacterial infections among humans.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gram-negative bacteria are a group of microbes that infect millions of people worldwide, leading to illnesses like pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and bloodstream infections.

These bacteria have powerful defense systems, namely tough cell walls that keep the majority of antibiotics out and remove any antibiotics that do get inside, making them particularly challenging to treat.

The microbes may also mutate to evade multiple drugs. Furthermore, treatments that do work aren’t very specific, leading them to also eradicate beneficial bacteria.

Paul Hergenrother and his colleagues wanted to design a drug that could infiltrate the defenses of gram-negative bacteria and treat infections while leaving other helpful microbes intact.

The team started with an antibiotic that was active against gram-positive bacteria. They then made a series of structural modifications that they believed would allow it to act against gram-negative strains.

One of the modified compounds, named fabimycin, proved potent against more than 300 drug-resistant clinical isolates while remaining relatively inactive toward certain gram-positive pathogens and some typically harmless bacteria that live in or on the human body.

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