A multinational consortium led by scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden has discovered and successfully tested in mice a new class of antibiotics that can treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria.
A new class of antibiotics is described this Monday in an article in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The research was supported by the European ENABLE project, led by Uppsala University and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which, together with more than fifty European partners from academia and industry, pools resources and knowledge to advance the development of multidrug antibiotics. resistant drugs. batteries.
Antibiotics are the basis of modern medicine, and over the last century they have greatly improved the lives of people around the world.
People depend on them to treat or prevent bacterial infections, to reduce the risk of infection in cancer treatment, invasive surgery, transplantation, in premature mothers and babies, and for many other purposes.
However, the global rise in antibiotic resistance increasingly threatens their effectiveness. To ensure access to effective antibiotics in the future, new compounds are urgently needed.
A consortium led by Uppsala University has developed a new type of antibiotic that targets the LpxH protein, which Gram-negative bacteria use to create an outer membrane that protects them from the environment as well as some antibiotics such as penicillin.
Not all bacteria produce this layer, but those that do include organisms that the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified as most important for the development of new treatments, including Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which are resistant to available antibiotics.
The team showed that this new class of antibiotics is highly active against multidrug-resistant bacteria and can treat bloodstream infections in mice, demonstrating its potential.
And since this class of compounds is completely new, and the LpxH protein has not yet been studied as a target for antibiotics, resistance to this class of compounds has not previously existed, the authors emphasize.
The team cautioned that while the current results are very promising, significant additional work will be needed before these compounds are ready for clinical trials.
The work to discover and develop this new class of antibiotics was supported by the ENABLE project, in which Uppsala University and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, together with more than fifty European partners from academia and industry, are pooling resources and expertise to advance antibiotic development. major gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii.
DMK // RFB
Lusa/The End
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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