New class of antibiotics could treat superbug infections
Scientists report the discovery of a new class of antibiotics by analyzing the bacterial warfare in people’s noses. According to the tests reported in the journal Nature, the resulting drug, lugdunin, could treat superbug infections.
The last new class of drugs to reach patients was discovered in the 1980s. Nearly all antibiotics were discovered in soil bacteria but the researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany turned to the human body, saying that it is an untapped source of new drugs.
Staphylococcus aureus, including the dreaded superbug strain MRSA, is among the bugs that like to invade the human nose. It is found in the noses of 30% of people.The scientists discovered that people with the rival bug Staphylococcus lugdunensis in their nostrils were less likely to have S. aureus.
Various strains of genetically-modified S. lugdunensiswere used by the German team to work out the crucial piece of genetic code that allowed the bug to win the fight against the rival.
They eventually pinpointed a single crucial gene that contained the instructions for building a new antibiotic, which they named lugdunin.Tests on mice showed lugdunin could treat superbug infections on the skin including MRSA, as well as Enterococcus infections.
One of the researchers, Dr. Bernhard Krismer, said that in some of the animals, no single cell of the bacterium was even detectable. “Others were reduced, but still contained some bacteria and we also saw that the compound penetrated the tissue and acted on the deeper layer of the skin.”
It will take years of testing before lugdunin could reach patients and it may not prove to be successful.
But new antibiotics are desperately needed as doctors face the growing challenge of infections that resist current drugs and could become untreatable.
Fellow researcher Professor Andreas Peschelagrees that the body could be mined for new antibiotics. He also believes that people could one day be infected with genetically-modified bacteria to fight their infections.
He argued: “By introducing the lugdunin genes into a completely innocuous bacterial species, we hope to develop a new preventive concept of antibiotics that can eradicate pathogens.”