UK researchers have developed a “game-changing” antibiotic that could be used as a “last line of defence” against superbugs to save millions of lives from otherwise drug-resistant infections. They say they have developed new versions of the molecule teixobactin, which is thought to be capable of killing bacteria without damaging mammalian tissue.
Teixobactin was first hailed as a “game-changing” antibiotic in 2015, but the new project has developed “synthetic” classes of the drug, according to scientists. These versions could destroy a wide range of microbes taken from human patients, a team including researchers from the University of Liverpool has found.
Our ultimate goal is to have a number of viable drugs from our modular synthetic teixobactin platform which can be used as a ‘last line of defence’ against superbugs to save lives currently lost due to antimicrobial resistance. They also successfully eradicated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – a so-called superbug known as MRSA, which is resistant to several widely used antibiotics – in a study on mice.
More than 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to a study published in The Lancet. Scientists said the tests suggested that in future, patients may be treated with just one dose of teixobactin per day for systemic life-threatening resistant bacterial infections.
The synthetic versions can also be kept at room temperature, making global distribution easier by eliminating the need for cold chains, researchers said.
Those leading the project, which was delivered in association with the University of Lincoln, also hope the tests may pave the way for the drug to be produced inexpensively on a large scale. Lead researcher Dr Ishwar Singh said the breakthrough was a significant step towards unlocking the full medical potential of teixobactin to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
“Our ultimate goal is to have a number of viable drugs from our modular synthetic teixobactin platform which can be used as a ‘last line of defence’ against superbugs to save lives currently lost due to AMR,” Dr Singh said.
