A plant poison recently discovered by scientists could prove to be a breakthrough in the fight against multi-resistant bacteria such as E. Coli. It reports The Guardian.
In the recent report, published in Nature Catalysis, it appears that the new type of antibiotic, referred to as albicidin, attacks bacteria in a completely different way to existing medicines.
– We could not find any form of resistance to albicidin in the laboratory. That is why we are very excited, because it looks like it will be very hard for bacteria to develop resistance to this, says Dmitry Ghilarov to The Guardian.
Outbreak of dangerous fungal infection
– Extremely high efficiency
Avisa writes that albicidin was initially discovered as an effective bacteria fighter several decades ago, but that at the time it was not known how the bacteria were attacked. Thus, it was impossible to use the discovery as a starting point for antibiotic production.
– We had to find out exactly how the bacteria are killed to be able to use this. And we have now managed that, says Ghilarov.
The discovery was made through a collaboration between researchers from several countries. Ghilarov is not reticent when it comes to describing how important the find may turn out to be.
– We believe this is one of the most interesting new antibiotic candidates in several years. It has extremely high efficiency in low concentrations, even against bacteria that are resistant to widely used antibiotics, says the researcher.
“Mysterious and deadly” infection: – A huge problem
Findings in every tenth sample
The WHO has warned that antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s biggest health threats. Excessive use of antibiotics has been blamed for the challenges associated with resistance in a number of bacteria.
Multiresistant E. Coli has also been researched in Norway. The University of Oslo mentioned as late as 2021 a research project where they had analyzed several thousand samples from patients in Norway with E. Coli in the blood.
From 2010 to 2018, multi-resistant bacteria were found in every tenth sample – a doubling compared to the samples from the previous eight years, when the project was also carried out.
