Breakthrough in search for drugs to battle antibiotic-resistant infections

HOSPITAL superbugs could be destroyed by a new class of antibiotics, according to the latest research.

The drugs have been described as a “potential landmark” in the war on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

It is the first discovery of its kind in more than three decades.

The drugs work against a wide range of bacteria by triggering the adaptive immune system.

These are molecules that essentially morph in response to invading bugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

Lead author Dr Farokh Dotiwala said: “We took a creative, doublepronged strategy to develop new molecules that can kill difficult-to-treat infections while enhancing the natural host immune response.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats against humanity.

It is estimated that by 2050, antibiotic-resistant infections could claim 10 million lives a year – costing the global economy

£75 trillion.

The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s. The last that first made it into doctors’ hands dates back to 1987. Microbes have since become highly resistant.

So the team at The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, focused on a metabolic pathway essential for most bacteria but absent in humans.

Dr Dotiwala, of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Centre, said: “We reasoned that harnessing the immune system to simultaneously attack bacteria on two different fronts makes it hard for them to develop resistance.”

The pathway, called MEP, is responsible for biosynthesis of isoprenoids – molecules required for cell survival in most pathogenic bacteria.

The laboratory targeted an essential enzyme in the process known as Isph, which blocked the chemical and killed the microbes.

Given its broad presence, the approach has implications for the whole bacterial world.

The new generation of antimicrobials described in the Nature journal have been named DAIAS (dual-acting immuno-antibiotics).

The list of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics is growing.

Few new drugs are in the pipeline, creating a pressing need for new antibiotics to prevent public health crises.