Antibiotic Discovery: First Since 1987

Their novel method for growing bacteria has yielded 25 new antibiotics, with one deemed "very promising".

The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago.

The study, in the journal Nature, has been described as a "game-changer" and experts believe the antibiotic haul is just the "tip of the iceberg".

The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s, but nothing found since 1987 has made it into doctor's hands.

...

Tests on teixobactin showed it was toxic to bacteria, but not mammalian tissues, and could clear a deadly dose of MRSA in tests on mice.

Human tests are now needed.

The researchers also believe that bacteria are unlikely to develop resistance to teixobactin.

It targets fats which are essential for building the bacterial cell wall, and the scientists argue it would be difficult to evolve resistance.

"Here is an antibiotic that essentially evolved to be free of resistance," said Prof Lewis. "We haven't seen that before.

"It has several independent different tricks that minimise resistance development."

30 APRIL 2014 | GENEVA - A new report by WHO–its first to look at antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, globally–reveals that this serious threat is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country. Antibiotic resistance–when bacteria change so antibiotics no longer work in people who need them to treat infections–is now a major threat to public health.

“Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill,” says Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security. “Effective antibiotics have been one of the pillars allowing us to live longer, live healthier, and benefit from modern medicine. Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”

/waits for new antibiotic to be overprescribed and under-completed. Hopefully we've learned about the consequences of those two activities.

I'm a bit gun-shy when it comes to new breakthroughs in medicine, because it seems like every amazing thing that I hear about shows up in the news before human testing... and then I never hear about it again. I'm keeping my hopes up on this one, though. Anything that has the potential to destroy medicine-resistant bacteria is good in my book.

/waits for new antibiotic to be overprescribed and under-completed. Hopefully we've learned about the consequences of those two activities.

Oh, I missed that part. I just saw 25 new antibiotics and though "Yay, more stuff for people to use to kill crap with, maybe one of these will cure cancer or something like that and never get heard from again"

That's... not how antibiotics work...

Reminds me of when I read about DRACO which are supposedely gonna cure any virus(last I heard they worked for anything tested). Sucks that this stuff requires years of testing...stay alive till then my friends.

/waits for new antibiotic to be overprescribed and under-completed. Hopefully we've learned about the consequences of those two activities.

/waits for new antibiotic to be overprescribed and under-completed. Hopefully we've learned about the consequences of those two activities.