Natural plant toxin as a new broad-spectrum antibiotic

Modifying the sugarcane leaf blight disease trigger - albicidin - so that it is effective against multidrug-resistant hospital pathogens

31-Jan-2023 - In cooperation with scientists from the UK and Poland, the research group led by Prof. Dr. Roderich Süssmuth from the Department of Organic and Biological Chemistry at TU Berlin was able to use electron microscopy at low temperatures to capture snapshots of how albicidin inhibits a vital enzyme ...

Disarming pathogens: New drug candidates to combat chronic infections

Researchers use bacterial communication as a target for new drugs

25-Jan-2023 - The pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the cause of a large number of serious infections and places a particular burden on immunocompromised patients. The increasing spread of antimicrobial resistance makes it even more difficult to combat the dreaded hospital pathogen. A research team led by Dr ...

Sweet salvation - how a sugar cane pathogen is gearing up a new era of antibiotic discovery

“We believe this is one of the most exciting new antibiotic candidates in many years

25-Jan-2023 - A potent plant toxin with a unique way of killing harmful bacteria has emerged as one of the strongest new antibiotic candidates in decades. The antibiotic, called albicidin, is produced by the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans, which causes the devastating leaf scald disease in ...

Sequential antibiotic therapy in the laboratory and in patients

Rapid switching between different antibiotics could prevent the evolution of resistance and lead to successful treatment of patients

17-Jan-2023 - Recent research results from the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön (MPI) suggest that rapid switching of antibiotics during the treatment of a patient could successfully counteract the evolution of resistance. However, the optimal speed of switching the drugs depends on ...

Researchers patent synthetic antibiotic

Second patent awarded to Florida International University for developing new arsenic-based antibiotics

19-Dec-2022 - Florida International University researchers have moved a step closer to producing synthetic arsenic-based drugs in their quest to solve an urgent worldwide health problem ―the growing number of infections that have become antibiotic-resistant. The team from theFIU Herbert Wertheim College of ...

Food decontamination spray deploys "billions of tiny soldiers"

Researchers harness bacteria-eating viruses to create a powerful new weapon against contamination and infection

08-Dec-2022 - Researchers at McMaster University have created a powerful new weapon against bacterial contamination and infection. They have developed a way to coax bacteriophages – harmless viruses that eat bacteria – into linking together and forming microscopic beads. Those beads can safely be applied to ...

How antibiotic-resistant bacteria evolve in the gut of hospitalized patients

Study shows the importance of integrating genetic diversity in the surveillance and diagnosis of antibiotic-resistant strains

23-Nov-2022 - A team led by scientists from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has analyzed how antibiotic-resistant bacteria evolve in the gut of hospitalized patients in real time. The results, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, demonstrate the importance of integrating evolutionary ...

A new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

A UNIGE team reveals that a drug used against herpes can fight a bacterium that is resistant to most antibiotics by weakening its defence mechanisms

09-Nov-2022 - The unreasonable use of antibiotics has pushed bacteria to develop resistance mechanisms to this type of treatment. This phenomenon, known as antibiotic resistance, is now considered by the WHO as one of the greatest threats to health. The lack of treatment against multi-resistant bacteria could ...

Antibiotic resistance linked to these household products

03-Nov-2022 - The study, byAssistant ProfessorHui Peng’s research groupin thedepartment of chemistryin the Faculty of Arts & Science, was able to show that triclosan – a chemical often included in household items like hand soaps, toothpastes, and cleaning products to fight off bacteria – is the ...

The new compound that destroys the MRSA superbug

A compound that both inhibits the MRSA superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics in lab experiments has been discovered

14-Oct-2022 - A compound that both inhibits the MRSA superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics has been discovered by scientists at the University of Bath in the UK led byDr Maisem LaabeiandDr Ian Blagbrough. The novel compound – a polyamine – seems to destroyStaphylococcus aureus, the ...