Saskatchewan researchers fight infections with synthetic antibiotic
A chance conversation between a chemist and microbiologist two years ago has led to a discovery with enormous possibilities for mankind.
“In many cases, chemists don’t really talk that much to microbiologists,” said Brian Sterenberg, a University of Regina chemist. “We were just discussing antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, and we came up with the idea of looking at a new area of chemistry and looking for antibiotics there.”
The interdisciplinary team of researchers from the U of R and the University of Saskatchewan has created a potent new synthetic antibiotic that is effective in lab research against several drug-resistant pathogens.
Sterenberg is excited about the discovery because antibiotic resistance is a huge issue.
“Next to global climate change, it’s probably the biggest problem facing mankind,” he said.
The research was recently published in the online journal Scientific Reports.
According to the researchers, the breakthrough means the group of synthetic compounds have great potential “to provide new chemical architectures for the development of next-generation antibiotics” and to “regain some ground on the antibiotic resistance problem.”
“The majority of molecules are either a molecule naturally occurring in nature — so usually what they are is they are molecules made by microbes to fight other microbes — ... but others are synthetic molecules that people have made but are patterned after naturally occurring molecules,” he said. “What is unique about ours is that there are no naturally occurring molecules that are anything like this molecule we have made.”
The idea was that the synthetic molecule would be so new that naturally occurring molecules will not have developed natural defence mechanisms against this new molecule.
Sterenberg said once his team was able to synthesize a molecule, it was handed over to the next team for testing.
U of R microbiologist John Stavrinides and his team took the synthetic molecule and tested against other microbes, which proved successful.
The team found the antibiotic compound to be effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which causes infections that can be lifethreatening if left untreated, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), bacteria which live in the human intestine and urinary tract, are often found in the environment, and are resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin.
These are among those dubbed “ESKAPE” pathogens because they pose a serious threat to human health through repeated emergence, but have the ability to escape antibiotic treatment.
Before announcing their findings, the team needed to find out if the new molecule was safe for humans.
Jane Alcorn, U of S professor of pharmacy, tested the antibiotic, which does not appear to be toxic to mice when given orally.
Sterenberg said this discovery opens up a whole new avenue of research.
“I am really hoping, with this (discovery), is to motivate other people to start looking for antibiotics in new places,” he said.
Sterenberg said it will take many years before this new antibiotic is available to humans, but he hopes the research will continue because such research has great potential to positively impact humans.