New viral discovery could aid efforts to combat antibiotic resistance

Scientists have made a key discovery in a study of gut viruses that could provide an insight into new ways of combating antibiotic resistance.

A team from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has revealed that these bacteriophage viruses are responsible for delivering genes that help bacteria to withstand attack from antibiotics.

This process can offer the bacteria protection not only from the drug to which they have been exposed, but also other forms of medication, thus accelerating the development of the dangerous superbugs that are posing a grave risk to human health worldwide.

It suggests that targeting these phages offer a potential new pathway for mitigating the development of antibiotic resistance.

Dr Don Ingber, Wyss Institute founding director, said: "Antibiotic resistance is as pressing a global health problem as they come and to fight it, it's critical to understand it."

Last month, the UK government addressed the World Health Assembly in Geneva to call for more widespread collaborative international action to tackle this problem.