The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has left researchers scrambling to develop new, stronger antibiotics. Now researchers have successfully used a method that may allow them to keep up -- manipulate the pathways used by microbes to produce the antibacterial products from which antibiotics are derived.The researchers used the technique to create a powerful new antibiotic that is highly effective against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus bacteria in vitro and in mice, according to the linkurl:study;http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.556.html published online on Sunday (April 10) in Nature Chemical Biology, and they are hopeful that it can be applied to other antibiotic systems.
"It seems to be very exciting -- we've found an activity against the resistance strains," said linkurl:Stefano Donadio,;http://www.ktedogen.com/stefano.html the president of the antibiotic-developing company KtedoGen and Chief Scientific Officer of NAICONS who was not involved in the research. "But it's important to realize that it's just the beginning," he added....
 |
Image: CDC |
Staphylococcus aureusNonomuraeaEnterococcusin vitroY.C. Liu et al., "Interception of teicoplanin oxidation intermediates yields new antimicrobial scaffolds," Nature Chemical Biology, doi: 10.1038/nchembio.556, 2011.
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!