New antibiotic can also kill multidrug-resistant bacteria

Protects Teixobactin from so-called super-pathogens?

There are more and more multidrug-resistant pathogens today that have become immune to the known forms of antibiotics. Researchers have now developed a new antibiotic that appears capable of killing so-called antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Researchers at the University of Lincoln found that a natural antibiotic called teixobactin could be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the future. The experts published the results of their study in the English-language journal "Chemical Science".

Teixobactin was discovered in soil samples in 2015

There are more and more antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world that do not respond to treatment with common drugs. However, the new research could now have made an important step towards developing a new commercially viable drug. This drug would be based on a naturally occurring antibiotic, which US scientists have discovered in 2015 in soil samples. Such a drug could then be used in the fight against antibiotic-resistant agents such as MRSA and VRE.

First successes in experiments on mice

Scientists at the University of Lincoln have now succeeded in developing a simplified, synthesized form of teixobactin that has already been used to treat a bacterial infection in mice. This is the first evidence that such simplified versions of the true form can be used to treat bacterial infections. The experts developed a library of synthetic versions of teixobactin by replacing key amino acids at specific points in the structure of the antibiotic.

Simplified synthetic versions were very effective

After these simplified synthetic versions were highly potent against multi-drug resistant bacteria in experiments, researchers from the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) used one of the synthetic versions to successfully treat a bacterial infection in mice. The synthesized teixobactin not only combated the infection itself, but also minimized the severity of the infection, which was not the case with the clinically used antibiotic moxifloxacin, which was used in a control study, the experts explain.

Multidrug-resistant pathogens could kill 10 million people a year

Forecasts predict that by the year 2050, around 10 million people per year will die as a result of drug-resistant infections. The development of new antibiotics, which can be used as a last resort when other medicines are already ineffective, is therefore an important area of ​​research for healthcare professionals around the world.

Teixobactin is a groundbreaking new antibiotic?

Success with these simplified versions must now be transferred from the lab to real cases. This would be a quantum leap in the development of new antibiotics, said Ishwar Singh of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Lincoln in a press release. In the discovery of teixobactin, it has been considered a pioneering new antibiotic that kills various bacteria, including so-called super-pathogens. However, natural teixobactin was not created for human use, Singh adds. The preliminary studies, however, suggest that the modified peptide reduces bacterial load and severity of the disease, raising the hope of therapeutic applications in humans. (As)