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"Superbugs" scare scientists looking for new drugs to fight against these dangerous infections, but British researchers have announced that they have developed a compound that can fight against these antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a whole new way.
The compound, a metal complex based on the ruthenium element, "acts by binding to the cell wall of bacteria and disrupting as the bacterial cells eventually burst," explained principal investigator Jim Thomas. He is Professor of Bioinorganic Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, England.
"We have found a whole new type of therapeutic yarn to treat infections that are at the top of the World Health Organization's" list of priority pathogens ", which, because of its total resistance to [antibiotics]urgent need for new treatments, "Thomas said.
The drug has been studied to fight cancer, but the researchers felt that it could also be promising as an antibacterial agent, he explained.
"So we have slightly modified one of our anticancer drugs so that it's used preferably by bacteria rather than by human cells," Thomas said.
Laboratory tests have shown that the compound is "quite effective," he said.
"We are the & # 39; was tested against a number of bacteria, including pathogenic forms, MDR," said Thomas. "We found that it is as potent as current antibiotics, but retains its effectiveness in drug-resistant forms difficult to treat."
The compound also has an advantage for researchers: it is luminescent and glowing when exposed to light, he added.
"We can directly visualize their absorption in bacteria and observe how they work in the cell," Thomas explained.
The potential new drug is particularly effective against gram-negative strains of bacteria, which are more difficult to treat with antibiotics because the cell walls of the bacteria are more difficult to penetrate, said the authors of the study.
For example, the researchers found that the drug had killed E. coli during laboratory tests.
It also seems to be safe in animals.
"We performed initial work on animal models using wax ringworm larvae and non-cancerous human cell cultures," Thomas said. "These studies reveal that even at concentrations several times higher than those that kill bacteria, the compound is not toxic to our models." We will need to do further studies in mice and others animals before it spreads to humans. "
This is another of the many areas of research on new methods of struggle against bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Every year, at least 2 million Americans develop an antibiotic-resistant infection and at least 23,000 deaths, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Americans have become very aware of the threat. A recent survey sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America found that 65% of Americans believe that antibiotic resistance is a public health problem and 81% fear that such resistance makes infections difficult to treat or even deadly.
Dr. Amesh Adalja is a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. "As antimicrobial resistance continues and physicians are increasingly confronted with the treatment of life-threatening serious infections, it is essential to step up the search for new tools and overcome traditional antibiotics." ", did he declare.
"The new compounds described in this work are unique and have multiple mechanisms of action increasing the threshold allowing bacteria to acquire resistance," Adalja continued. "It will be important to develop this line of investigation to see if it can give a drug of therapeutic value."
The new study was published on May 28 in the journal ACS Nano.
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