Database to tackle antibiotic resistance

Scientists are launching a database to help encourage the development of new antibiotics.

Researchers have developed the new tool to help list compounds that could be used to develop novel drugs.

It comes amid global concern that some drugs used to fight infections are losing effectiveness.

It has previously been estimated that if no action is taken, drugresistant infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

The database, AntibioticDB, comes after a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, the John Innes Centre and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

It details antibacterial compound discoveries that were once-promising leads but, for various reasons, the research has stopped or stalled.

Lead author Professor Laura Piddock, of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Microbiology and Infection, said: “There is no doubt that the antibiotic pipeline needs revitalisation; however, the answer may be not only the development of new drugs, but also re-investigating compounds previously discontinued.

“For this reason, we have developed and populated an easy-touse database of antibiotics that can be accessed for free by anybody; we hope this will help both academia and commercial companies with their drug-discovery efforts.”