The Journal of the American Chemical Society has published a new study
that suggests it may be possible to fight superbugs with conventional antibiotics. By pairing the
drugs with a new class of metal-based agents called metallopolymers, which revitalize their
potency, researchers believe they may be able to overcome drug resistance.
The drug-resistant bacterium MRSA (short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus) is one of the biggest causes of hospital-acquired infections in the US. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the superbug commonly spreads in hospitals when
contaminated health workers unwittingly pass it to patients via their hands.
Once vulnerable patients acquire MRSA, they can become seriously ill with pneumonia and other
potentially fatal conditions.
MRSA has evolved several mechanisms of drug resistance. One of the ways it resists
conventional antibiotics - like penicillins, cephalosporins and carbapenems - is by producing
enzymes that inactivate them.
There have been several attempts to develop new agents to defeat these enzymes, but without
much success. But in this new study, a team led by Chuanbing Tang, an assistant professor of chemistry
and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina in the US, describes a recently
discovered class of agent that tells a different story.
Several strains of MRSA were defeated by new agent and conventional antibiotics
The team found that several strains of MRSA succumbed to conventional antibiotics, like
penicillin-G, amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cefazolin, when they were paired with the new agents
- large, metal-containing molecules called metallopolymers.
They showed how the polymer-antibiotic combination avoided the bacterium's defensive enzymes
and proceeded to destroy its protective membrane, causing the superbug cell to burst.
They also think the agents will have minimal side effects, since they appeared to leave red
blood cells alone.
The researchers conclude:
"These discoveries could provide a new pathway for designing macromolecular scaffolds to
regenerate vitality of conventional antibiotics to kill multidrug-resistant bacteria and
superbugs."
Funds from the National Science Foundation helped finance the study.
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