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Scientists discover antibiotic that can fight superbugs

Alok Jha

It could prove invaluable against drug-resistant bacteria

London: Scientists have found a new weapon in the fight against drug-resistant hospital superbugs: a new class of antibiotic called platensimycin. If it passes the required clinical trials, it will be only the third entirely new anti-bacterial to reach the clinic in the past 40 years.

The drug is in the earliest stages of development but, if successful, could prove invaluable against bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus, resistant to even the most powerful modern antibiotics such as vancomycin. It was discovered by a team at Merck research laboratories in New Jersey. The results were published on Thursday in the journal Nature.

The new antibiotic was found when 250,000 extracts from drug-producing micro-organisms were tested. Platensimycin is a molecule produced by Streptomyces platensis, a fungus-like bacterium, and works in a different way from previous antibiotics. It inhibits an enzyme called FabF, used in the formation of fatty acids in bacterial cells. These acids are crucial building blocks of cell membranes and surfaces for bacteria.

Platensimycin had an ``extraordinary'' way of working, but was not the first anti-bacterial compound to attack the formation of fatty acids.

An experiment on mice infected with Staphylococcus aureus showed that platensimycin cleared the bacteria with no toxic side-effects, but it will take a decade of clinical trials and further research before it appears in any pharmacy.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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