British scientists have hailed a “game-changing” antibiotic in a new study released Tuesday that could save millions of people worldwide from drug-resistant germs.
The team of researchers, working jointly with the University of Lincoln, made significant progress by developing new versions of the teixobactin molecule, which successfully killed the bacteria without damaging the mammalian tissues they were tested on.
Using a study involving mice, the researchers were able to successfully eradicate a superbug known as MRSA, which was previously resistant to antibiotics.
Dr Ishwar Singh, who led the research, said: “Our ultimate goal is to obtain a number of viable drugs from the modular synthetic platform of teixobactin that can be used as a last line of defense against superbugs to save lives currently lost due to antimicrobial resistance.”
Scientists revealed that teixobactin was previously hailed as a “game-changing” antibiotic, after a study conducted in 2015, but the new research succeeded in developing “synthetic” classes of the drug, allowing the treatment to be distributed globally.
Public Health England warned in 2017 that antibiotic resistance was creating “one of the most serious global crises facing the modern world today”, with scientists fearing that antibiotics would not ultimately cure serious infections.
The Global Research Report on Antimicrobial Resistance, published in the Lancet in January, found that more than 1.2 million people died from drug-resistant infections in 2019. Another 4.95 million deaths were indirectly associated with antimicrobial resistance in an analysis of 204 countries and territories.
A review of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) commissioned by the UK government warns that by 2050, an additional 10 million people will die each year from drug-resistant infections.