Docs hail magical antibiotic

Hope in disease battle

SCIENTISTS hope to battle the threat of antibiotic- resistant infections by modifying a “magical” drug.

They have been working on vancomycin, known as a magical antibiotic because of its potency.

Despite the drug having been prescribed for 60 years, bacteria are only now becoming resistant to it.

Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California have altered vancomycin so it works in three separate ways on bacteria, making it much harder for them to develop resistance.

The researchers believe doctors will be able to use the modified form without fear of resistance emerging.

Previous studies by the team showed it was possible to add two modifications to make the drug even more potent and reduce the amount needed.

The new study reveals another modification which interferes with bacteria’s ability to form cell walls in a different way.

The modified drug killed even vancomycin-resistant enterococci – considered by the World Health Organisation to be one of the greatest threats to humanity.

Dale Boger, co-chair of TSRI ’s Department of Chemistry, said the new vancomycin was the first antibiotic to have three independent “mechanisms of action” to kill bacteria.

He said: “Organisms just can’t simultaneously work to find a way around three independent mechanisms of action. Even if they found a solution to one of those, the organisms would still be killed by the other two.”