Scientists have managed to develop a new antibiotic - it is texobactin. Research shows that it can fight even the most resistant bacteria against which currently available drugs have not been active for a long time, including golden staphylococcus, so far resistant to metacycline. Check how tymxobactin works and what bacteria it can fight.

New antibiotic-tejxobactin- is a breakthrough in medicine. After more than 30 years of research, scientists have finally managed to develop a drug that can fight even the most resistant bacteria that are not affected by currently available antibiotics (the so-called antibiotic resistance) for a long time. Experts hope that this will help us avoid problems similar to those faced by people living in the pre-antibiotic era, when pneumonia or even an ordinary wound was deadly. All this is possible thanks to the research of scientists from Northeastern University in Boston (USA), the results of which have been published in the journal "Nature".

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How was the new antibiotic developed?

Antibiotics are substances produced mainly by bacteria and soil fungi that inhibit the growth or destroy other bacteria and fungi. Until now, these microorganisms have been transferred from their natural environment to a laboratory, where they have been grown on traditional media in dishes called dishes. Unfortunately, under these conditions only 1 percent of soil bacteria grow, and antibiotics derived from them have been known for years and pathogenic bacteria are resistant to their effects.

The last antibiotic was developed in the 1980s. Since then, many bacteria have become resistant to these drugs.

That's why scientists from Northeastern University decided to change the way bacteria are grown. To this end, they developed a miniature device called iChip that allows bacteria to be grown in the soil. As a result, as much as 50 percent of soil bacteria can be obtained, and not just 1 percent. All because - as scientists suspect - most of these bacteria need other (as yet unknown) bacteria and the compounds they create, as well as the right proportions of substances found in the environment, etc., which are not in the laboratory, for the growth.

The breeding method isvery simple - iChip is filled with a diluted soil sample solution. Then, a special microchannel installed in the iChip "catches" individual bacterial cells in the soil sample. The whole thing is then surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane and placed back in the soil from which bacteria can take up nutrients and growth factors. When the bacterial minicolony grows, it can be transferred to the laboratory. In this way, scientists managed to grow and then study as many as 10,000 such colonies. However, only one microbes calledElephtheria terraein laboratory tests inhibited the multiplication of pathogenic bacteriaStaphylococcus aureus(golden staph). The compound that this colony produced was then purified and the exact structure determined and dubbed thixobactin.

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A new antibiotic - how does tymxobactin work?

By binding to lipids, thixobactin disrupts the structure of bacterial cell membranes. In this way, it acted not only on the golden staphylococcus, so far resistant to metacycline, but also on tuberculosis mycobacteria and many other Gram-positive bacteria. The effectiveness of the new antibiotic has been confirmed in animal studies. Treated with this antibiotic, mice that were infected with either staphylococcus aureus or pneumoniae had significantly less severe symptoms of infection.

Moreover, scientists have failed to grow new mutant bacteria resistant to toxobactin, which means that the antibiotic will be effective for a long time. Meanwhile, they are conducting further research to confirm whether the new antibiotic can also fight bacteria responsible for serious nosocomial infections.

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It should be noted that the new antibiotic is only effective against gram-positive bacteria and not against gram-negative bacteria. However, scientists hope that further research using iChips will find effective remedies against these bacteria.

When will it be possible to treat people with the new antibiotic?

Unfortunately, research into the side effects of tixobactin is still ongoing. Fortunately, tests in human cell cultures have shown that the antibiotic does not damage cell membranes. Nevertheless, clinical trials (with human participation) are necessary, the results of which must be positive for the drug to be widely used for therapeutic purposes.

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