Antibiotic that kills drug-resistant bacteria created
Researchers have successfully created two synthetic derivatives of Teixobactin – an antibiotic that is world’s first known antibiotic that has the capability of destroying drug resistant bacteria.
Teixobactin, which kills a range of pathogens without detectable resistance, was isolated from microorganisms found in soil – the natural source of nearly all antibiotics developed since the 1940s, researchers said. The discovery in the US was hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
It is a potential drug and several versions of the antibiotic will have to be produced via chemical synthesis in order to overcome the hurdles of drug development.
Recently, researchers from University of Lincoln in the UK have become the first group of scientists to synthetically produce two derivatives of Teixobactin.
Ishwar Singh from University of Lincoln said, ‘Teixobactin originally evolved in soil to kill the bacteria around it, so our challenge was to produce the antibiotic synthetically’ Singh further added, ‘The method we created to do this uses commercially available ‘building blocks’ and has a single purification step.’
Meanwhile it is wise for doctors not to unnecessarily prescribe antibiotics under pressure from patients as it often happens in developing countries.
