New antibiotic created to disarm rather than kill infections

Scientists in the US have been able to create a new type of antibiotic that is able to disarm and nullify typically antibiotic-resistant infection types.

A team led by University of California, Los Angeles researchers have found that a small molecule called LpxC-1 is able to block endotoxin synthesis within the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii, a common cause of hospital infections.

LpxC-1 does not kill the bacteria in question, but by ceasing endotoxin production, the body is not prompted to mount the inflammatory immune response that can prove so damaging to seriously ill patients.

Having been shown as effective among mice, this could prove to be a promising new avenue for treating antibiotic-resistant infections, which is a growing public health challenge.

Liise-anne Pirofski of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine commented on the study, saying: "There's a growing movement in infectious disease therapy to control the host inflammation response in treatment rather than just murdering the organism. This is a very elegant and important validation that this approach can work."

The issue of antimicrobial resistance has been highlighted by the World Health Organization as a major problem that is increasing the likelihood of people being killed by drug-resistant forms of diseases such as tuberculosis.