Ultra-tough antibiotic to fight superbugs

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40091179

Ultra-tough antibiotic to fight superbugs

1 hour ago

From the section Health

US scientists have re-engineered a vital antibiotic in a bid to wipe out one of the world's most threatening superbugs. Their new version of vancomycin is designed to be ultra-tough and appears to be a thousand times more potent than the old drug, PNAS journal reports. It fights bacteria in three different ways, making it much less likely that the bugs can dodge the attack. It is yet to be tested in animals and people, however.

The Scripps Research Institute team hope the drug will be ready for use within five years if it passes more tests.
(snip)

One hard-to-treat infection that has been worrying doctors is vancomycin-resistant enterococci or VRE. It has been found in hospitals, can cause dangerous wound and bloodstream infections and is considered by the WHO to be one of the drug-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. Some antibiotics still work against VRE, but the 60-year-old drug vancomycin is now powerless.

The Scripps team set out to see if they could revamp vancomycin to restore its killing ability. They made some strategic modifications to the molecular structure of the old drug to make it better at attacking bacteria where it hurts - destroying cell walls.

Three changes in particular seem to be important, increasing the strength and durability of the drug. Lead researcher Dr Dale Boger explained: "We made one change to the molecule vancomycin that overcomes what is the present resistance to vancomycin. And then we added to the molecule, two small changes that built into the molecule, two additional ways in which it can kill bacteria. So the antibiotic has three different, we call them 'mechanisms', by which it kills bacteria. And resistance to such an antibiotic would be very difficult to emerge. So it's a molecule designed specifically to address the emergence of resistance."

The modified drug was able to kill samples of VRE in the lab and retained nearly full potency after 50 rounds of exposure to the bacterium.
(snip)

[Sancho]

1. Sounds expensive.

[Ilsa]

2. kick & rec. Did you cross-post to GD?

I think it's big enough news to cross-post.

This is a really big deal if it makes it out of drug trials.

[Warpy]

3. Good news for people with VRE, a really nasty bug.

However, they'll probably jack the price up to the stratosphere for this one. In one way, that's a good thing, ensuring that it will only be used when VRE and other vancomycin resistant bugs are confirmed. Unfortunately, it also means a lot of people who need it will have to fight to get it.