Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a novel compound that effectively clears bacterial infections in mice, including those that can result in rare but potentially fatal «flesh-eating» illnesses. The compound could be the first of an entirely new class of antibiotics, and a gift to clinicians seeking more effective treatments against bacteria that can’t be tamed easily with current antibiotics.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a novel compound that effectively clears bacterial infections in mice, including those that can result in rare but potentially fatal «flesh-eating» illnesses. The compound could be the first of an entirely new class of antibiotics, and a gift to clinicians seeking more effective treatments against bacteria that can’t be tamed easily with current antibiotics.
The research is published Aug. 2 in Science Advances.
The compound targets gram-positive bacteria, which can cause drug-resistant staph infections, toxic shock syndrome and other illnesses that can turn deadly. It was developed through a collaboration between the labs of Scott Hultgren, Ph.D., the Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology, and Michael Caparon, Ph.D., a professor of molecular microbiology, and Fredrik Almqvist, a professor of chemistry at the University of Umeå in Sweden.
A new type of antimicrobial would be good news for clinicians seeking effective treatments against pathogens that are becoming more resistant to currently available drugs, and thus much more dangerous.
«All of the gram-positive bacteria that we’ve tested have been susceptible to that compound. That includes enterococci, staphylococci, streptococci, C. difficile, which are the major pathogenic bacteria types», said Caparon, the co-senior author.
