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A new hope against antibiotic resistance

2024-08-17 14:38:00, Shëndeti CNA

A new hope against antibiotic resistance

Illustrative photo

A new class of antibiotics, macrolones, affects bacteria in two different ways, making antibiotic resistance virtually impossible.

A new push to combat antibiotic resistance, one of the major challenges to global health, may come from a class of synthetic antibiotics that target bacteria not just in one way, but on two fronts at once.

Synthetic macrolone antibiotics destroy bacterial functionality, making the ability of microorganisms to develop resistance 100 million times more unlikely, according to a new study. The research was published in Nature Chemical Biology.

Macrolones, two ways to block superbugs

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have demonstrated experimentally that macrolone antibiotics make life difficult for bacteria in two ways: by preventing them from producing proteins and by corrupting the structure of their DNA.

Since both actions occur simultaneously at the same concentration, bacteria lose their ability to acquire random mutations in either of these two ways.

Thus the evolution of antibiotic resistance properties becomes almost impossible.

Macrolon, a successful combination

Macrolones are synthetic antibiotics that combine the antibacterial properties of two other common classes of antibiotics, called macrolides, into a single compound. The first is erythromycin, commonly prescribed against respiratory and urogenital infections. It works by blocking ribosomes, the organelles that bacteria need to efficiently make proteins.

The second class of antibiotics is that of the phloroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin, which are used only to fight urinary tract, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections.

This targets a bacterial enzyme called DNA gyrase, which has a very important role in DNA replication. This prevents their DNA from reaching the correct structure.

The team synthesized several macrolones and selected the one that, at the lowest dose, could perform both tasks at the same time. This makes it virtually impossible for bacteria to organize their own genetic defenses.

Further development of these compounds may constitute one of the best solutions yet investigated to combat antibiotic resistance./ CNA