Antibiotics, after washing hands, is the biggest breakthrough in medical history. Without them people could die of routine infections from a cut toe or after childbirth. With them, doctors can stop sepsis before it goes too far. But every parent’s nightmare, and as doctors in hospitals know too well – bacteria have developed ways to become resistant to some of today’s antibiotics – meaning they won’t work on all people all of the time.
One reason people don’t give antibiotics to their children early is to safeguard the drugs for when the child needs it. But new research may be able to pump up the potency when antibiotics become resistant: A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.
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For a new paper in the scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology, researchers looked at how a class of synthetic drugs called macrolones disrupt bacterial cell function to fight infectious diseases. Their experiments demonstrate that macrolones can work two different ways – either by interfering with protein production or corrupting DNA structure.
Because bacteria would need to implement defenses to both attacks simultaneously, the researchers calculated that drug resistance is nearly impossible.
“The beauty of this antibiotic is that it kills through two different targets in bacteria,” said Alexander Mankin, from the university. “If the antibiotic hits both targets at the same concentration, then the bacteria lose their ability to become resistant via acquisition of random mutations in any of the two targets.”
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Macrolones are synthetic antibiotics that combine the structures of two widely used antibiotics with different mechanisms. Macrolides, such as erythromycin, block the ribosome, the protein manufacturing factories of the cell. Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, target a bacteria-specific enzyme called DNA gyrase.
Two UIC laboratories led by Yury Polikanov, associate professor of biological sciences, and Mankin and Nora Vázquez-Laslop, research professor of pharmacy, examined the cellular activity of different macrolone drugs.
Polikanov’s group, which specializes in structural biology, studied how these drugs interact with the ribosome, finding that they bind more tightly than traditional macrolides. The macrolones were even capable of binding and blocking ribosomes from macrolide-resistant bacterial strains and failed to trigger the activation of resistance genes.
Other experiments tested whether the macrolone drugs preferentially inhibited the ribosome or the DNA gyrase enzymes at various doses. While many designs were better at blocking one target or another, one that interfered with both at its lowest effective dose stood out as the most promising candidate.
“By basically hitting two targets at the same concentration, the advantage is that you make it almost impossible for the bacteria to easily come up with a simple genetic defense,” Polikanov said.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
