Breakthrough in fight against killer bacteria
Published: November 3, 2006
A GIANT step forward has been made in the fight against killer superbugs like MRSA.
Experts at the University of Portsmouth believe they have discovered a way of destroying harmful bacteria, paving the way for a new generation of antibiotics.
The team’s revolutionary research is aimed at producing drugs which will effectively fool the bacteria’s own immune system, causing it to turn on itself.
The super-antiobiotics could prove vital in combating bugs like MRSA which are increasingly proving impossible to treat with traditional drugs.
If the researchers hopes are realised, their work could ultimately save many thousands of lives a year worldwide, allowing treatment of many bacteria from MRSA to E Coli.
Portsmouth hospitals alone record about 15 deaths a year from MRSA.
The potentially groundbreaking discovery came by accident during a student’s PHD thesis on bacterial DNA.
Now a team of four bimolecular scientists at the University will use six years of study as a base for a £485,000 research programme.
At the end of three years they hope to have designed a molecule or drug which will trigger a bacteria’s own defence system to attack itself.
Project leader Professor Geoff Kneale, 56, who has 35-years experience in biomolecular science, said: ‘There is an amazing need to get new antibiotics, not just tinkering with the two or three types there are.
‘These would be a new class of antibiotics which bacteria would find harder to resist as it’s effectively using its own immune system to kill itself.
‘More research and work is needed but antibiotics like this would be fantastic.’
John McConnell, editor of The Lancet medical journal, said: ‘This sounds like a reasonably original idea and an entirely new weapon in the battle against superbugs.
‘Developing entirely new drugs like this which can specifically target bacteria is very welcome.’
Nigel Allsop, the vice-chairman of Portsmouth city’s public and patient involvement forum and an MRSA victim himself, said: ‘Current antibiotics have a very limited effect on MRSA.
‘A great deal is being done to improve cleanliness in hospitals with wards and uniforms but at the end of the day we need the next generation of antibiotics.’
The £485,000 research funding comes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: