You happen to find a drug that can fight the most resistant bacteria

Image: Taken from RT in Spanish.

A group of researchers from American scientific institutions have developed a new antibiotic that is effective against a wide range of “stubborn” pathogenic microorganisms without causing bacterial resistance its use would reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases that are difficult to treat with existing drugsreported the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Antibiotic resistance, or antimicrobial resistance (AMR), occurs when disease-causing organisms have the ability to mutate and adapt over time so that they can survive exposure to drugs that previously could kill or control them.

The World Health Organization has since considered AMR one of the top public health threats worldwide is the cause of 1.27 million deaths per year, Low- and middle-income countries are hardest hit.

Its creation was due to chance

According to the authors of the research paper, published in the journal eBioMedicine, the development of the new drug came during the development of a class of small synthetic molecules called conjugated oligoelectrolytes (COEs) that would be used to electrically charge cell phones used by US soldiers in combat.

However, it has been discovered that some of these compounds, when applied to bacterial membranes to act as electron carriers, can also inhibit bacterial growth. Given this finding, the scientific team considered that these oligoelectrolytes could be used as potential antibiotics.

Academic Michael Mahan explained that while most of these chemicals can be “highly toxic to human cells in a manner similar to bleach,” They found one that wasn’t. This was used in tests on transgenic mice with blood poisoning, where it “was able to kill all bacterial pathogens”.

this connection, identified as COE2-2hexyl, showed broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. Also, after prolonged exposure to the drug, low bacterial resistance was observed. Because this antibiotic, unlike penicillin, has a specific mechanism of action, as it can disrupt several bacterial functions at the same time.

“This class of antibiotics has potential as a versatile new therapy for antimicrobial-resistant pathogens,” said researcher Charles Samuel. The scientists stressed that additional studies are planned to determine the drug’s safety and effectiveness before it is used as a medical treatment.

(Taken from RT in Spanish)