Experimental Antibiotic Could Help to Prevent Bacterial Resistance
Researchers led by Dr Dale Boger, co-chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, have developed structural modifications to vancomycin which increase the antibiotic’s potency 1000 fold, and could help to prevent bacterial resistance for many years to come.
Vancomycin has been used successfully for nearly 60 years, and researchers are only now beginning to see the development of resistance. Previous studies from Boger and colleagues have shown that with the addition of 2 modifications, vancomycin could become even more potent.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Could Antifungal Therapy Improve Asthma Symptoms?
Alternating Antibiotics Can Combat Drug-Resistance
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In a recent study, the team examined the potential addition of a third structural modification, which, combined with the previous modifications, could give vancomycin a 1000-fold increase in activity.
“This increases the durability of this antibiotic,” stated Boger. “Organisms just can’t simultaneously work to find a way around three independent mechanisms of action. Even if they found a solution to one of those, the organisms would still be killed by the other two.”
When researchers tested the efficacy of the new antibiotic against strains of Enterococci, the drug successfully eliminated both vancomycin-resistant Enterococci and the original Enterococci.
Currently, the researchers are attempting to reduce the 30-step process to create the antibiotic to streamline the manufacturing process before testing its safety in animals.
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
1) New antibiotic packs a punch against bacterial resistance [press release]. La Jolla, CA: The Scripps Research Institute; May 29, 2017. http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2017/20170525boger.html
2) Okana A, Isley NA, and Boger DL. Peripheral modifications of [Ψ[CH2NH]Tpg4]vancomycin with added synergistic mechanisms of action provide durable and potent antibiotics [published ahead of print May 30, 2017]. PNAS. doi:10.1073/pnas.1704125114.