Antibacterial drugs are important for treating infections. But increasingly, bacterial resistance to current drugs -; so they don't work well, or even at all -; means new ones are urgently needed. Building on previous work, researchers in ACS Infectious Diseases have demonstrated a potential antibacterial treatment from a modified darobactin, a compound originally from a bacterium.
The team reports proof-of-concept animal trials on infections caused by bacteria, including E. coli , that are known to develop drug resistance. This study was published during the World Health Organization's World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week from November 18 to 24.
Earlier in 2024, the World Health Organization updated its list of bacterial pathogens that can develop resistance to antibiotics to include Acinetobacter baumannii , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E. coli , among others. Despite the need for new antibiotics that target these priority pathogens, scientists don't have many candidates.
One potential resistance-breaking compound is called darobactin, a naturally produced antibiotic discovered in a bacterium. Darobactin binds to an essential protein in cells of different bacteria and eventually causes their death. Previously, Rolf Müller, Jennifer Herrmann and colleagues showed that genetically engineered versions of darobactin have antibacterial activity.
Specifically, one of these non-natural, biosynthetic darobactins (called D22) inhibited A. baumannii growth in lab assay.
