Swedish researchers at Uppsala University have discovered a new class of antibiotics with strong activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria. The new class of antibiotics, described in an article in the scientific journal PNAS, eliminated resistant infections from the blood in a mouse model.
Peer review/Experimental animal study
Antibiotics are the foundation of modern medicine and have significantly improved people’s lives over the past century. Currently, there is a tendency to use antibiotics for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections in various situations, such as cancer therapy, invasive operations and transplants, or for administration to premature babies. However, the global increase in antibiotic resistance is increasingly threatening their effectiveness. To ensure access to effective antibiotics in the future, the development of new therapies is essential.
Researchers at Uppsala University recently published their work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, describing a new class of antibiotics. The class of compounds targets a protein, LpxH, that helps synthesize other essential components of the outer membrane, called lipopolysaccharides. Since about 70% of gram-negative bacteria use this enzyme, it could be a suitable target for many infections.
The researchers were able to show that this new class of antibiotics is highly active against multidrug-resistant bacteria and was able to treat bloodstream infections in a mouse model, demonstrating the promise of this class. The discovery is important because this class of compounds is completely new and the LpxH protein has not yet been exploited as a target for antibiotics, so there is no pre-existing resistance to this class of compounds. This is in contrast to many antibiotics “me-too” from existing classes that are currently in clinical development. While the current results are promising, considerable further studies are needed.
Source of information: www.uu.se
