Game-changing antibiotic could save millions – study – Reuters
More than 1.2 million people died from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in 2019
British scientists hailed “game-changing” antibiotic in a new study published Tuesday, which could save millions of people around the world from drug-resistant superbugs.
The team of researchers, working in association with the University of Lincoln, achieved the breakthrough by developing new versions of the molecule teixobactin, successfully killing bacteria without damaging the tissues of the mammals on which it was tested.
Using a study involving mice, researchers succeeded in eliminating a superbug known as MRSA, which was previously resistant to antibiotics.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a number of viable drugs from our modular synthetic teixobactin platform that can be used as a ‘last line of defense’ against superbugs to save lives currently being lost to AMR.” , Dr Ishwar Singh, who led the research, said.
Teixobactin has already been hailed as a “game-changing” antibiotic, following a study in 2015, but the new research succeeded in developing “synthetic” classes of the drug, allowing for easier worldwide distribution of the treatment, the scientists revealed.
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Public Health England warned in 2017 that antibiotic resistance is building “one of the most dangerous global crises facing the modern world today”, because scientists fear that antibiotics may no longer be able to treat serious infections.
The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance report, published in The Lancet in January, found that more than 1.2 million people died from drug-resistant infections in 2019. An additional 4.95 million deaths were indirectly associated with the antimicrobial resistance in the analysis of 204 countries and territories. .
A review of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) commissioned by the UK government has warned that by 2050, 10 million more people will die each year from drug-resistant infections.