Authorities from the World Health Organization worry that we might now be in the post-antibiotic era. They call for urgent action to develop powerful new drugs to overcome antibiotic resistance.
Getting Rid of Drug-Resistant Bacteria
A team of researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands led by Markus Weingarth investigated the antibiotic clovibactin found in a rare type of bacterium living in the sandy soil of North Carolina. They discovered this antibiotic effectively kills "superbugs," such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.
Unlike most antibiotics, clovibactin attacks the cell wall, giving the bacteria a harder time evolving and developing resistance. It uses an unusual hydrophobic interface to enclose pyrophosphate in bacteria, resulting in a lack of resistance. As a lipid-targeting peptide drug, clovibactin is considered one of the first novel classes of natural antibiotics in the next 30 years.
Recently, medical experts expressed concern regarding antibiotic overuse's negative effects. This practice has led to the rise of "superbugs," which can resist many existing antibiotics. Because of this, bacterial infections that were treatable in the past can now pose life-threatening challenges.
Clovibactin is currently in the early development phase, and it still needs to undergo rigorous testing before it is approved for use in humans. If the researchers prove it is effective in clinical trials, it can be a powerful drug in killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The discovery of clovibactin serves as a medical breakthrough because it provides a potential solution to the challenges of antibiotic resistance. It also highlights the importance of responsible use of existing antibiotics to prevent the bacterial evolution of resistance.
Antibiotic Resistance as New Medical Crisis
In 1928, penicillin was accidentally discovered by Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming at St. Mary's Hospital in London. This discovery has led to the development of antibiotics, which helped reduce the number of deaths due to bacterial infection. In almost 100 years, antibiotics have changed the course of medicine and helped extend the human lifespan by an average of 23 years.
However, irresponsible overuse and misuse of this drug have led to antibiotic resistance among bacteria. In the U.S. alone, it is reported that over 2.8 million infections from antibiotic-resistant occur, which results in 35,000 deaths every year.
It is normal for bacteria to develop resistance to a drug, but how drugs are used can affect the rate and degree of this resistance. Antibiotic resistance occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi develop the ability to resist the drugs designed to kill them. This means that they are not killed and continue to grow instead. If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, then we will also lose our ability to treat infections that used to be manageable in the past.
Today, antibiotic resistance is considered an urgent global threat to public health. It has the potential to affect not only human health but also other industries such as veterinary and agriculture.
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