Antibiotic of last resort, vancomycin, fortified to kill resistant bacteria

sandiegouniontribune ^ | 5/28/17 | Bradley J. Fikes

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Each year, more than 2 million people in the United States get antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 23,000 of them die. Unless breakthroughs are achieved, that toll will keep rising.

If a new version of an antibiotic of last resort lives up to its promise, that date with doom may be averted.
A study on this bolstered form of vancomycin by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla was released Monday.

Researchers led by Dale Boger, co-chair of TSRI's Department of Chemistry, introduced three modifications to vancomycin,
all lethal to bacteria and independent of each other.
Superbugs need to overcome all three changes to survive, which is extremely unlikely, the study said.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

While fear of losing antibiotics has made doctors restrict their use,
Boger and colleagues contend this doesn’t solve the problem, it just slows down the process.
Better science is the solution, they say, to engineer antibiotics to anticipate and thwart resistance from the start.

The modified vancomycin needs further development so it can be tested in people to prove its safety and efficacy.
Moreover, Boger’s team made the drug through a lengthy, 30-step process, which limits yield.
He and colleagues are working on shortening that process.

Even with the current synthesis method, the new vancomycin should be medicinally useful, the study said.
It’s more than 10 times as potent as an earlier version that introduced two lethal modifications.
With the third lethal change, the altered vacomycin is more than 1,000 times as potent as standard vancomycin itself.(More information at news source)

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Infectious Disease ping ( modified vancomycin )

The altered and modified vacomycin is more than 1,000 times as potent as standard vancomycin itself.
The recent modification currently requires a 30 step process, which limits its production and availability, and is still experimental.

[Little Ray]

Vancomycin has saved my life (or a limb, anyway) twice. Good stuff.
Hope it is around if I need it again.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Little Ray :" Vancomycin has saved my life (or a limb, anyway) twice. Good stuff.

Glad to hear it !
The modified Vancomycin is said to defeat the superbugs that are now medication resistant.
According to the article, the researchers are trying to speed up the production process,
while maintaining its efficacy .

[Truthoverpower]

Colloidal silver it is highly effective and killing all known bacteria and viruses over it and 650 have been demonstrated been known for thousands of years and yet the mainstream medical establishment will only except its use on topical as an internal agent it kills viruses and bacteria much more effectively as it disables their aerobic uptake and targets only single celled organisms I highly recommend using colloidal silver

[WMarshal]

It’s about time they really focused on antibiotics that attack bacteria in more than one way to prevent resistance.

Recent research has led scientists believe that some infectious bacteria quorum signal to each other and that when they reach a critical mass become much more virulent. In other circumstances they signal to one another to go into a dormant cyst phase to protect themselves when being overwhelmed. Short circuiting this process could also lead to better antibiotics.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

WMarshal :" .. go into a dormant cyst phase to protect themselves when being overwhelmed.
Short circuiting this process could also lead to better antibiotics."

I think that this multi-step process might be useful in other applications as well.
What immediately comes to mind is the several bacterial and viral infections transmitted by ticks, many of which are only recently being discovered.
Some of these infections have no known medical treatment.
While it might not be the "Silver Bullet", it may open up other avenues of usefulness in medical treatment, since it is still in the experimental stage.

[Hawthorn]

As opposed to years of testing on animals, plus thousands of pages of FDA reviews, the FDA should act to make at least the 10X version available immediately to human patients who have no realistic option other than a quick death from sepsis. If you’re gonna die anyway in a few days, what’s the harm of trying an experimental drug?

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Hawthorn :" If you’re gonna die anyway in a few days, what’s the harm of trying an experimental drug?"

Exactly true !

[GOPJ]

Third world countries sell antibiotics ‘by the pill’... a system unintentionally designed to wipe out the usefulness of all antibiotics. Since they outnumber us, soon we’ll be back living and dying like we did in the early parts of the last century. All of us.

[Little Ray]

I hope they use it sparingly!
Those bugs are gaining on us.
Need to keep ahead until we develop hunter-killer nano machines that can destroy bacteria at a wound site.
Also maybe start using benign bacteria that fill the niches that the more dangerous bacteria try to use.

[Getready]

The article reports that dr boger says they still gotta get past the animal and these toxicity studies..these are very tall obstacles. The article as I remember said nothing about it being tested in humans yet...the metabolism of this new vancomycin congener needs to be studied...it may fine in the lab...but either in the blood or topically it could show unacceptable toxicites....still a loooooong way to go..
.

[DiogenesLamp]

I highly recommend using colloidal silver

Do you use it? I have been interested in this idea for quite some time, but I can't seem to find out about silver toxicity in the human body.

[redcatcherb412]

I highly recommend using colloidal silver

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My daughters father in law (79) just hospitalized with colon cancer that ate thru his colon depositing not so nice contents in his peritoneal cavity. Kidney failure probably from sepsis plus a thyroid tumor. No idea if his decades use of silver has anything to do with any of those. He took it so long that his skin has a greenish/metalic hue that is different to look at. Might have no bearing on his maladies at all. I would assume some major testing would need to be accomplished. He swore by the silver for years.

[DiogenesLamp]

That is a very unsettling story. I wouldn't think that silver would cause genetic mutations, but who knows?

I can see how it would be useful at killing bacteria, but I don't think people really understand the effects of high dosage exposure in humans.

On a related note, Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic over an extended time period. As a result, his body is perfectly preserved. His cells are so contaminated with arsenic that bacteria can't eat them, and so his remains do not rot.

I would think silver would have a similar effect.

[redcatcherb412]

I doubt they can pin anything but his skin coloration definitively on silver. The cancer can probably be attributed to his age and the fact he relied heavily on ‘alternative’ medicine and ignored things like the much publicized exhortations to the public to have periodic colon screenings starting about age 50. The thyroid tumor is anybodies guess as to origin.

[greeneyes]

My Mom had VRE (vancomyicin resistant) kidney disease that ended her life.

My dad had a Penicillin resistant respiratory infection and the only 2 choices were Vancomycin or sulfur drugs. They thought his kidneys couldn’t take the exposure to sulfur, so they tried the Vanco - it helped him to regain consciousness, but couldn’t lick the infection entirely, but at least he was able to communicate his wishes, so they quit harassing me.