Posted on 12/11/2007 3:41:13 PM PST by blam
Scientists Strike Blow In Superbugs Struggle
ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2007) — Scientists from The University of Manchester have pioneered new ways of tweaking the molecular structure of antibiotics -- an innovation that could be crucial in the fight against powerful super bugs.
The work was led by chemical biologist Dr Jason Micklefield in collaboration with geneticist Professor Colin Smith.
Scientists working in The School of Chemistry and the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre have paved the way for the development of new types of antibiotics capable of fighting increasingly resistant bacteria.
Micklefield, Smith and colleagues were the first to engineer the biosynthesis of lipopeptide antibiotics of this class back in 2002. They have now developed methodologies for altering the structure of these antibiotics, such as mutating, adding and deleting components.
This innovation provides access to thousands of lipopeptide variants that cannot be produced easily in any other way.
Dr Micklefield said: "The results from this work are essential in the development of the next generation of lipopeptide antibiotics, which are critical to combat emerging super bugs that have acquired resistance to other antibiotics.
"The potent activity of this class of antibiotics against pathogens that are resistant to all current antibiotic treatments makes them one of the most important groups of antibiotics available.
"Our work relies on interdisciplinary chemical-biology, spanning chemistry through to molecular genetics. It follows the tradition of pioneering work in natural product biosynthesis and engineering that has come out of the UK."
Scientists in Manchester have been doing work on calcium dependent antibiotics (CDA), which belong to the same family of acidic lipopeptides as daptomycin.
In 2003 daptomycin became the first new structural class of natural antibiotic to reach hospitals in more than 30 years.
But researchers say there is already evidence that bacteria are evolving and becoming resistant to daptomycin -- leading to the emergence of dangerous new super bugs.
Dr Micklefield added: "If we are to successfully fight and control potent new super bugs in the future, we need to be developing the next generation of antibiotics now."
The research carried out by Dr Mickelfield and his colleagues is part of a larger £650,000 project called 'Combinatorial biosynthesis of lipopeptide antibiotics', which is funded by the BBSRC and supported by drug discovery company Biotica. It is concerned with elucidating and engineering biosynthetic pathways leading to complex nonribosomal lipopeptide antibiotics.
'Engineered biosynthesis of non-ribosomal lipopeptides with modified fatty acid side chains' was published online December 5 and will also appear a forthcoming print issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Funding was provided by the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Manchester.
Ping.
Few people realize the incredible effect antibiotics have had on medicine. I was surprised to read that prior to 1910, over 90% of deaths were caused by infectious disease.
Today it is just the opposite, only 10% and that is due to antibiotics.
I always thought Sir Alexander Fleming should have been named the man of the century.
If you ever get a chance, read what you can on the issue of washing hands in early modern medicine. It is amazing what an impact that simple thing had on mortality rates.
That reminds me of a story. Back in 1965 I was working at a large resort with over 400 on the staff. One day nearly the entire work force came down with food poisoning. We were sick as dogs. Everyone who got sick had eaten the chicken and rice. The staff Dr. came to the boys dorm and was passing out paragoric from gallon jugs.
The next day the manager said it was a virus going round and that people in nearby towns had the same thing. Next the staff Dr. went to the mike and said, “that may be true but I suggest the kitchen staff start washing their hands a little more often”. We all burst out laughing.
True enough huh. Good one.
The research carried out by Dr Mickelfield and his colleagues is part of a larger £650,000 project called ‘Combinatorial biosynthesis of lipopeptide antibiotics’, which is funded by the BBSRC
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BBSRC is one of seven Research Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK). It is funded from the Government’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
and if it doesn’t work...will they pay the govt back the money?
Ping and to the link in post 4 (Thanks, blam!)
Do we have any assurances that the compounds they are working on can have no short term or long term effects on mammalian biology?
Didn’t thing so.
I gather you would prefer that people die from “superbugs” than research be conducted.
These advances will grind to a halt once we get socialized medicine in America. America is the last bastion of experiment and development of drugs. What European companies still do research only do it because of the American market. The research is extremely expensive and the patents received and the monopoly prices that derive from those patents while they are in force are what pays for the research for the new drugs and for the ones that failed. We complain about the high cost of new drugs in America but the alternative is no new drugs. When the government is the payer for medicine then there can be no more drug research or new machines because the government has to weigh medical expenses against Defense and Welfare and bureaucrats’ salaries.An individual’s health is his priority and he will pay what he must to maintain it. The government has to decide who is worthy to get healthcare and does not have that individual’s priority at all.
I read or heard about the struggle Franz Lister had convincing people to spray his liquid over the surgical site, after very deep cleansing of the surgical team, before, during and after surgery.
People began to actually survive.
Not at all.
But I recall back in the ‘80s when a new type of research was being conducted. At least that was when the press started talking about it big time.
And at the time, it got all the exposure and arguments that the stem cell debate has now. It was touted as both the thing that might save mankind, or the thing that might destroy us.
Recombinant DNA tech.
Much of the testing was using a very common bacteria, and I thought at the time “That doesn’t sound to bright. What if something goes wrong and it escapes?”. They were using a bug everybody has heard about now called Escherischia Coli.
About a decade later, in the early to mid ‘90s, there started to be reports of a lethal infection in foods - a bug they named E Coli:157
So that’s all I’m saying.
We have the knowledge to act like Gods. Can we find the wisdom?
Recombinant tech has been around a while-but e coli 157 has been here much,much longer ! I’m almost 74,and it was a problem when my parents were kids !
It is common to cattle,and found in cow manure. It sometimes finds its way into our food chain when large-scale farmers-especially organic farmers- get careless about runoff.
Recombinant DNA had zip to do with it.
Recombinant tech has been around a while-but e coli 157 has been here much,much longer ! I’m almost 74,and it was a problem when my parents were kids !
It is common to cattle,and found in cow manure. It sometimes finds its way into our food chain when large-scale farmers-especially organic farmers- get careless about runoff.
Recombinant DNA had zip to do with it.
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