Scientists have isolated a potential new antibiotic from a bacterial strain found in sandy soil in North Carolina.
This mechanism may reduce the likelihood that pathogens will develop drug resistance.
This powerful substance, called clobibactin, was only recently discovered in a pharmaceutical company’s lab. novobiotic. Even if it is ultimately proven to be safe, it will take about 10 years before it is developed into something that medical professionals can actually use.
Nevertheless, the researchers involved in this discovery are excited.
“I think this is the end of the evolutionary path to antibiotic resistance avoidance.” state Kim Lewis, a microbiologist at Northeastern University.
This is surprising to hear amidst the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis, which was the third leading cause of death worldwide in 2019 and is expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
But there is reason to be cautious in our optimism.
“We are in step one.” Note Lewis. But “the most important thing about clobibactin, apart from its promise as a lead in drug discovery, is that it expands our understanding of antibiotics and their potential.”
The development of new antibiotics has proven difficult in part because 99% of bacterial species do not cooperate and grow in the laboratory.
Using techniques developed in previous research, Lewis and his team took sandy soil isolates and extended their incubation period to see if it promoted the growth of new types of bacteria in the lab. I have confirmed. Three months later, a new species appears Eleftheria terrae carolina appeared.
From here, the team isolated clobibactin.
“Clovibactin was isolated from bacteria that were previously unable to reproduce, so the pathogenic bacteria had never seen such an antibiotic before and did not have time to develop resistance.” explain Markus Weingars, a chemist at Utrecht University.
Clovibactin remains on the envelope that lines the inside of the bacteria.Gather and bundle here thread-like fibrils Peptidoglycan molecule used by bacteria to build cell membranes. The bacteria then destroys its own membrane in a vain attempt to eliminate this wormy hitchhiker.
“What’s most interesting is that it binds to a very simple target (a phosphate molecule) that is unique and cannot be changed.” explain Lewis.
“This is the first discovery of a compound that binds to a simple, invariant target.”
Because the phosphate moiety of cell wall-building molecules is critical for the molecule to perform its function, bacteria cannot change its structure without consequences, as they have successfully done with other antibiotic target molecules. But this is just one way bacteria develop antibiotic resistance, and there are no guarantees.
Clobibactin has already cleared MRSA infections in mice and has been shown to be nontoxic to cultured human cells. The researchers did not detect the slightest sign of resistance during these experiments.
Although there is still much work to be done, Shukla and colleagues’ research shows that the possibility of at least long-term effective antibiotics is very real.
This research cell.