New drink could thwart antibiotic resistance
“The drink has potential to work against many resistant bacteria found in the gut”
A drink containing bacteria could become a promising new weapon in the battle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found.
The drink works by targeting plasmids, which are small DNA molecules found inside bacterial cells. Plasmids frequently carry genes that give rise to antibacterial resistance in bacteria. They replicate independently, and spread between different bacteria, carrying the resistance genes with them as they go.
The drink contains a new type of genetically engineered bacteria carrying what the researchers call ‘pCURE plasmids’. The pCURE plasmids prevent target plasmids of resistant bacteria from replicating, and stop the resistance genes from spreading, effectively making the bacteria susceptible to antibiotics again.
“We were able to show that if you can stop the plasmid from replicating, then most of the bacteria lose the plasmid as the bacteria grow and divide,” said lead researcher Prof Christopher Thomas. “This means that infections that might otherwise be hard to control, even with the most powerful antibiotics available, are more likely to be treatable with standard antibiotics.”
The team is now seeking funding for a clinical trial for the drink which has potential to work against many resistant bacteria commonly found in the human gut, including E. coli, Salmonella and Klebsiella pneumoniae.
“This is a promising start. We aim to make modifications to further improvethe efficacy of our pCURE plasmids before moving towards a first clinical trial,” said Thomas. “Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest medical challenges of our time. We need to be tackling this on a number of different fronts, including by reducing our use of antibiotics and searching for new, more effective drugs. Our approach, which tackles one of the causes of antimicrobial resistance at a genetic level, could be an important new weapon in this battle.”