New drug that combats hospital superbugs on horizon

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

A new drug that combats hospital superbugs may be on the horizon.

Vulnerable patients would be prescribed it before the infection starts.

In experiments, mice were protected against multiple strains of C diff - including those that cause serious illness.

It is the first discovery of its kind in more than three decades.

The World Health Organisation has named antimicrobial resistance as one of the biggest threats facing mankind.

By 2050, superbugs could claim ten million lives each year - returning medicine to the dark ages.

Co-author Professor Ernesto Abel–Santos, of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said: "Some of the new compounds we have developed provide multiday protection in mice from just a single dose.

"What’s more, we found that these compounds appear to move in a loop between the liver and the intestine, which means that the liver is enabling a slow release of these compounds to the gut."

The list of bacteria becoming resistant to treatment with all available options is growing. The last new drug that made it into doctors' hands dates back to 1987.

C. diff causes life-threatening diarrhea and is usually a side effect of taking antibiotics.

Only two major drugs are approved to treat this, both of which are antibiotics that are administered only after the infection has taken hold.

Lead author Jacqueline Phan, a chemistry doctoral student in the lab, said: "C. diff infection is quite a burden to the US healthcare system, costing $3 billion to $4 billion annually.

"Our research aims to create a preventative drug that could be used to treat susceptible individuals before the infection starts, instead of treating patients only after they display signs of the infection."

One reason C. diff is so dangerous is its ability to form dormant spores that can survive on surfaces or in the gastrointestinal tract.

Only when the spores reach the nutrient-rich interior will they germinate, turning into cells that cause symptoms.

Prof Abel–Santos said: "Anthrax is another well-known spore-forming type of bacteria.

"After the anthrax attacks in 2001, I started thinking about how these spores - which are basically specks of sand - detect their environment and start the germination process that returns them to a normal living organism.

"I realized targeting the germination process could be a way to prevent infectious diseases such as C. diff."

The optical properties of a spore change when it starts to germinate - enabling the US team to test hundreds of different compounds.

A molecule called CaPA was the best. They are now developing synthetic versions that will survive in the gut long enough to be used for prevention.

A patient's liver could even control dosages - boosting gut bacteria.

Prof Abel-Santos said: "This is something that has not been studied before. It might be possible to use the patient’s own liver as part of the treatment plan."

There is wide concern the world is cruising into a "post-antibiotic" era - leaving many common infections untreatable.

Staples of modern medicine – including surgery, chemotherapy and organ transplants – would become redundant.

Ms. Phan presented the findings at a meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Seattle.