Scientists see off superbugs with modified drug

A “magical” antibiotic has been modified to make it more potent against bacteria, in an advance which researchers hope will help fight the threat of antibiotic-resistant infections.

The medicine, vancomycin, has been prescribed by doctors for 60 years and bacteria are only now becoming resistant to it.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in the US have now modified the drug so it works in three separate ways on bacteria, making it much harder for them to develop resistance.

The researchers said doctors could use the modified form of vancomycin without fear of resistance emerging.

The World Health Organisation has said antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development, with major diseases becoming harder to treat because the drugs used on them are becoming less effective.

The length of time it has taken for bacteria to become resistant to vancomycin suggests they have had a hard time overcoming the way the original drug worked, disrupting how bacteria form cell walls, the researchers said.