Programmable antibiotic ‘could be used to target resistant microbes’

Scientists have demonstrated a 'programmable antibiotic' able to target specific microbes, which might have major implications in the fight against bacteria that have developed antibiotic resistance.

Conventional antibiotic treatments work by attacking all of the microbes populating the human body at once – a tactic that sometimes has the unwanted side-effect of wiping out good bacteria while resistant bugs survive.

However, researchers at Rockefeller University have now developed an enzyme – called Cas9 – which is capable of targeting a single DNA sequence and cutting it up, keeping the body's healthy microbial community intact.

Published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, their study mooted the possibility of using the technique to combat C. diff, a severe colon infection caused by the highly resilient Clostridium difficile bacterium.

Fighting this microbe typically requires prolonged courses of conventional antibiotics, depleting the body of good bacteria and leaving the patient open to secondary infection.