Scientists have tweaked a powerful antibiotic, called vancomycin, so it is once more powerful against life-threatening bacterial infections. Researchers say the more powerful compound could eliminate the threat of antibiotic resistance for many years to come.
Antibiotic resistance, in which microbes no longer respond to drugs, is quickly becoming a global health emergency…Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, modified vancomycin, invented 60 years ago and considered a last resort treatment against many of these infections. They made a key change to its molecular structure, interfering with how the bacterium, enterococcus, makes protective cells walls.
In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigators describe how the change made vancomycin 1,000 times more effective against both drug-resistant enterococci and the original forms of the microorganism.
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The challenge now for researchers is to reduce the number of steps it takes in the lab to boost vancomycin’s effectiveness. Having redesigned the antibiotic’s molecular structure, [Dale Boger, who co-chairs the institution’s Department of Chemistry] called streamlining its production the “easy part.”
Even if researchers are unable to simplify the way the improvements are made, Boger said efforts to supercharge vancomycin are worth it for the antibiotic’s lifesaving powers, calling the drugs “total cures” against bacterial infection.
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