As of: January 19, 2024, 7:44 p.m
By: Julia Stanton, Kilian Bäuml
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The threat of multi-resistant germs is growing.
Researchers have discovered a new active ingredient that could change the medical world.
Cambridge – Antibiotics are usually the first choice for bacterial infections such as tonsillitis or bladder infections.
However, more and more bacteria are developing resistance to these drugs, making them more difficult to treat.
A possible solution to this problem could now come from researchers at Harvard University in the USA: They have developed the active ingredient zosurabalpine, which has proven to be effective against highly resistant bacterial strains in mice.
The journal
Nature
has published the study results.
New active ingredient: hope in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
The focus of the research is the carbapenem-resistant bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii, also known as crab.
This bacterium is one of the worldwide gram-negative bacteria that is protected by a membrane and thereby prevents the penetration of antibiotics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies crab, along with two other antibiotic-resistant bacteria species, as very critical pathogens.
This bacterial strain has been observed particularly in infections in war zones, most recently in soldiers from the Ukrainian war.
A pack of antibiotics (M) and various other medications lie on a table in a pharmacy.
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/archive image
Andrew Edwards, lecturer in molecular microbiology at Imperial College London, commented on the issue to the
Guardian
: "Crab is often the cause of infections in hospitals, particularly among people on ventilators."
Although crab is not considered an aggressive pathogen, its treatment is difficult due to resistance to many antibiotics.
Edwards describes the new active ingredient as very exciting, as combating crab has previously been extremely challenging.
No new antibiotic against gram-negative bacteria has been approved for more than 50 years.
Active ingredient against resistant germs: breakthrough in antibiotic research
However, the active ingredient zosurabalpine is not yet ready for use.
Further clinical studies are currently underway to optimize the active ingredient.
This is of great importance because the WHO warned of multi-resistant germs as early as 2022 and described them as a “global threat”.
The organization estimates that more than a million people die every year from infectious diseases against which antibiotics are ineffective.
In Germany there are around 2,400 people every year.
In addition, there have been repeated supply bottlenecks for other medications for a long time.
A 24-year-old man from North Rhine-Westphalia became infected with multi-resistant pathogens in November and found himself in a race against time.
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