New antibiotics do not cause "addiction" bacteria will be able to act on them even in a dormant state
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The research group of the north-eastern university in Boston, led by Kim Lewis, managed to invent a completely new medical drug, different from all known to date. Its main difference is that bacteria can not develop resistance to it. Moreover, the drug has an effect not only on active bacteria, but also on those that are in latent, i.e. Sleeping, state. All antibiotics known today can not act on sleeping bacteria precisely because of their inactivity.
According to the authors, their invention will be a good weapon in the fight against bacteria that have developed resistance to drugs.
Experts around the world have long been thinking about the problem of bacterial mutations and their adaptation to antibiotic drugs. Scientists believe that the development and introduction of new antibacterial drugs on the pharmaceutical market is vital, because "obsolete" versions of antibiotics are no longer able to cope with the task.
The main substance of the new preparation is the special peptide ADEP-4, which activates the protease responsible for the cleavage of the bacterial proteins. In the process of research, ADEP-4 was added to Staphylococcus aureus, in time all harmful bacteria died.
After the specialists decided to intensify the action of ADEP-4 rifampicin (antibiotic), a strong-effect preparation was obtained, which was used to treat a laboratory mouse that was infected with a Staphylococcus infection. As a result, the mouse was completely healthy.
According to experts, bacteria have virtually no chance of adapting to a new kind of antibiotic. In order to develop resistance to the drug, bacteria need to abandon ClpP protease, but without this enzyme, the proper functioning of the cell is, in principle, impossible. Specialists already in the near future plan to conduct research on a group of volunteers, if the tests are successful (as scientists do not doubt), then the drug will receive a license and will be launched into batch production.
In the modern world, antibiotics occupy a certain place among medicines. Most of the diseases are treated with antibacterial agents. There are several groups of antibiotics that differ in the principle of action and in the final result in separate groups of microorganisms. Over the past decades, many new generations of antibiotics have been developed, because over time, any antibacterial agent becomes relatively unsuitable, due to the development of resistance to bacteria. As a result, the treatment of infectious diseases is becoming increasingly difficult, and scientists are forced to develop new sophisticated drugs, in some cases very expensive.
Studies aimed at combating existing infections are conducted in a variety of ways. Recently, a group of scientists from Holland managed to create a "luminous" antibiotic, which helps to detect infection in the body at different stages of the disease.