AI Summary
Researchers have developed a new antibiotic called lolamicin, which has shown promise in fighting drug-resistant bacterial infections in mouse models of acute pneumonia and sepsis. The drug effectively eliminated more than 130 multidrug-resistant bacterial strains in cell culture and was able to ward off secondary infections with Clostridioides difficile. This development is significant as lolamicin was able to target pathogenic bacteria while sparing healthy gut microbes, unlike many currently approved antibiotics which can disrupt the gut microbiome and lead to further infections. This new antibiotic could potentially lead to the development of more targeted and effective treatments for drug-resistant infections.
Researchers have developed a new antibiotic that reduced or eliminated drug-resistant bacterial infections in mouse models of acute pneumonia and sepsis while sparing healthy microbes in the mouse gut. The drug, called lolamicin, also warded off secondary infections with Clostridioides difficile, a common and dangerous hospital-associated bacterial infection, and was effective against more than 130 multidrug-resistant bacterial strains in cell culture.
The findings are detailed in the journal Nature.
“People are starting to realize that the antibiotics we’ve all been taking -; that are fighting infection and, in some instances, saving our lives -; also are having these deleterious effects on us,” said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother, who led the study with former doctoral student Kristen Muñoz. “They’re killing our good bacteria as they treat the infection. We wanted to start thinking about the next generation of antibiotics that could be developed to kill the pathogenic bacteria and not the beneficial ones.”
Numerous studies have found that antibiotic-related disturbances to the gut microbiome increase vulnerability to further infections and are associated with gastrointestinal, kidney, liver and other problems.
Most clinically approved antibiotics only kill gram-positive bacteria or kill both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.”
Kristen Muñoz, former doctoral student
Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria differ in the composition of their cell walls. Gram-negative bacteria have a double layer of protection, making them more difficult to kill, Muñoz said.
The few drugs available to fight gram-negative infections also kill other potentially beneficial gram-negative bacteria. For example, colistin,