Scientists from The Rockefeller University found a new antibiotic synthesized at and derived from computer models of bacterial gene products that appears to neutralize even drug-resistant bacteria.
The compound, named cilagicin, works well in mice and employs a novel mechanism to attack MRSA, C. diff, and several other deadly pathogens.
The research is published in Science and was conducted by Sean F. Brady et al.
Bacteria have spent billions of years evolving unique ways to kill one another, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that many of our most powerful antibiotics are derived from bacteria themselves.
With the exceptions of penicillin and a few other notables derived from fungi, most antibiotics were first weaponized by bacteria to fight off fellow bacteria.
But with the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, there is an urgent need for new active compounds.
Untold numbers of antibiotics, however, are likely hidden within the genomes of stubborn bacteria that are tricky or impossible to study in the lab.
An alternative method, championed by the team for the past fifteen years, involves finding antibacterial genes in soil and growing them within more lab-friendly bacteria.
In the study, the team turned to algorithms. By teasing apart the genetic instructions within a DNA sequence, modern algorithms can predict the structure of the antibiotic like compounds that a bacterium with these sequences would produce.
Organic chemists can then take that data and synthesize the predicted structure in the lab.
They found cilagicin reliably killed Gram-positive bacteria in the lab, did not harm human cells, and successfully treated bacterial infections in mice.
Of particular interest, cilagicin was potent against several drug-resistant bacteria and, even when pitted against bacteria grown specifically to resist cilagicin, the synthetic compound prevailed.
The team says currently cilagicin is still far from human trials. They will perform further syntheses to optimize the compound and test it in animal models against more diverse pathogens to determine which diseases it may be most effective in treating.
If you care about antibiotics, please read studies about antibiotics linked to higher colon cancer risk, and this yogurt may prevent diarrhea caused by antibiotics.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about diet that could make your body frail, and results showing cooking food in this way may raise your risk of blindness.
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