Trojan horse antibiotic could beat the superbugs

A ‘TROJAN horse’ antibiotic which can trick its way through a superbug’s defences has been created by scientists.

The drug works by attaching itself on to iron molecules which bacteria need to live and grow. Once allowed inside the bacterial cell, it can destroy it from within.

Experts hope it will be the first of a number of new drugs developed to replace the world’s dwindling arsenal of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is increasingly seen as the biggest threat to modern medicine, with warnings that drug-resistant infections will kill more people than cancer and diabetes by the middle of the century.

The overuse of antibiotics has seen bacteria evolve to fight off conventional drugs, causing many to lose their power against infections.

Now scientists have developed a drug, called cefiderocol, which is able to hijack the bacteria’s defences and get inside the cell. It works by binding on to iron, which bacteria needs to survive, allowing the drug to pass through the bacteria’s filter system and cell walls.

Dr Simon Portsmouth, lead researcher for Shionogi Inc, US, said: ‘Cefiderocol acts as a trojan horse.’ Trials were carried out on 452 hospital patients with severe infections over a fortnight.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, Angela Huttner from the Division of Infectious Diseases at Geneva University Hospitals, said: ‘The bacterium not only greets its destroyer at the door, it actively carries it across the threshold.’