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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

Researchers have found a way to modify vancomycin [wikipedia.org] — a last-ditch antibacterial — and "supercharge" it to create vancapticins [uq.edu.au] which are far more effective against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections:

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria – superbugs – cause 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, and a UK government review has predicted this could rise to 10 million by 2050.

[University of Queensland's] Dr Blaskovich said the old drug, vancomycin, was still widely used to treat extremely dangerous bacterial infections, but bacteria were becoming increasingly resistant to it.

“The rise of vancomycin-resistant bacteria, and the number of patients dying from resistant infections that cannot be successfully treated, stimulated our team to look at ways to revitalise old antibiotics,” Dr Blaskovich said.

“We did this by modifying vancomycin’s membrane-binding properties to selectively bind to bacterial membranes rather than those of human cells, creating a series of supercharged vancomycin derivatives called vancapticins.”

The rebooted vancomycin has the potential to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE).

[...] “Drug development is normally focused on improving binding to a biological target, and rarely focuses on assessing membrane-binding properties.

“This approach worked with the vancapticins, and the question now is whether it can be used to revitalise other antibiotics that have lost effectiveness against resistant bacteria.

“Given the alarming rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the length of time it takes to develop a new antibiotic, we need to look at any solution that could fix the antibiotic drug discovery pipeline now,” Professor Cooper said.

Having been treated for an infection with vancomycin, I can attest it's a scary feeling when, after three days' treatment, the infection commences to spread! Fortunately, an increased dose turned the tide, but it was touch-and-go for a while. Sadly, is this just another step in the cat-and-mouse battle of increasing bacterial resistance?

Journal Reference:

1. Mark A. T. Blaskovich, Karl A. Hansford, Yujing Gong, Mark S. Butler, Craig Muldoon, Johnny X. Huang, Soumya Ramu, Alberto B. Silva, Mu Cheng, Angela M. Kavanagh, Zyta Ziora, Rajaratnam Premraj, Fredrik Lindahl, Tanya A. Bradford, June C. Lee, Tomislav Karoli, Ruby Pelingon, David J. Edwards, Maite Amado, Alysha G. Elliott, Wanida Phetsang, Noor Huda Daud, Johan E. Deecke, Hanna E. Sidjabat, Sefetogi Ramaologa, Johannes Zuegg, Jason R. Betley, Andrew P. G. Beevers, Richard A. G. Smith, Jason A. Roberts, David L. Paterson, Matthew A. Cooper. Protein-inspired antibiotics active against vancomycin- and daptomycin-resistant bacteria. Nature Communications, 2018; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02123-w [doi.org]

Original Submission