Compound Effective Against Drug-Resistant Bacteria - Healthline

Scientists led by researchers at the University of Illinois used antibiotics that were effective against non-resistant bacteria as a baseline to test compounds that might work against drug-resistant “gram-negative” bacteria whose thick cell walls and other internal mechanisms make them hard to treat with normal antibiotics.

One of the modified compounds that they tested, fabimycin, appeared to be effective, reducing drug-resistant bacteria in mice to pre-infection levels and outperforming traditional antibiotics.

Further testing revealed that the compound was also effective against 300 other drug-resistant bacteria in a laboratory setting.

When some bacteria survive a course of antibiotics, they can pass on their antibiotic-resistant traits to the next generation of bacteria.

This is one reason why antibiotic-resistant staph infections such as MRSA have become endemic in many hospital settings.

In fact, antibiotic resistance has doubled in the past two decades, driven by modifiable factors such as overuse and misuse of antibiotic drugs as well as over-reliance on antimicrobial soaps.

Still, individuals can also help prevent the proliferation of new antibiotic-resistant drugs by always completing their full courses of antibiotics when prescribed by a doctor as well as avoiding the use of soaps with antibacterial chemicals in them.

“The ability of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics will be forever with us,” Greenberg said.

Antibiotics are powerful, lifesaving medications used to fight infections caused by bacteria