Delphine Schiltz / Photo credits: KATERYNA KON / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA / KKO / Science Photo Library via AFP
modified to
06:33, August 23, 2023
Antibiotic resistance could kill up to ten million people a year by 2050 and cost the global economy up to $100 trillion. Laboratories around the world are mobilized to find new treatments and an international team of researchers has just discovered a new antibiotic: clovibactin.
Antibiotic resistance, a global scourge. It could cause up to ten million victims per year by 2050 and cost up to 100,000 billion dollars to the world economy. But researchers have discovered a new antibiotic in a bacterium present in the soil, unlike traditional antibiotics. Its strike force is original. Clovibactin attacks bacteria in three different places, whereas most antibiotics only have one target. However, the more targets there are, the more the bacteria find it difficult to resist. As such, the tests carried out by the team of Marcus Wagner, biochemist and main author of the study, were very conclusive.
Effective against Staphylococcus aureus
“To test the development of resistance, we use a bacterium. We expose this bacterium to a concentration of the antibiotic which disturbs the bacterium, but which does not kill it. As a result, the bacterium, for several weeks, tried to develop resistance and for clovibactin, we have not discovered any resistance”, declared the biochemist at the microphone of Europe 1.
For the moment tested on mice, the antibiotic has been able to eliminate the famous staphylococcus aureus, one of the main causes of infection in hospitals. In these tests, the molecule does not seem to have any adverse effects. Next step, toxicity and efficacy tests in humans. If everything is conclusive, the researchers hope to bring it to market within ten years.