Jheanelle Andrea A.

Godoy 11 - STEM

New type of antibiotic discovered in soil in breakthrough for

fight against drug-resistant superbugs

Scientists trawling through

thousands of soil samples have
discovered a whole new class of
antibiotics capable of killing
drug-resistant bacteria.

The chemical, which has been

Malacidins were effective even against MRSA-strain
resistant to existing last line of resort antibiotics
called malacidin, appears to be
non-toxic in humans and effective
in tackling the hospital superbug
MRSA, raising hopes that it could
be used to develop a new
treatment.

Scientists say antimicrobial resistance - the ability of diseases to fight back against
and ultimately become immune to known treatments - represents one of the
greatest threats to humanity.

Finding new antibiotics is key to staying one step ahead of bacteria threats, but
only one new class - teixobactin - has been discovered in the last 33 years.

The hunt for new antibiotics is benefiting from recent technological advances
which make it easier to rapidly comb the DNA of different soil organisms, which
are otherwise hard to raise in a petri dish.
Soil is a good place to look for new organisms because it is here that bacteria
naturally compete for resources and use a range of exotic chemical compounds to
kill each other.
The malacidin chemical, identified by Dr Sean Brady and his laboratory at
Rockefeller University, New York, works by attacking a fundamental step in
bacterial growth, essentially interfering with a major building block that the
bacteria use to build and repair their outer membrane.
In their study, published as a letter in the journal Nature Microbiology, the authors
cautioned that it is only effective against one group of bacteria - the gram positives,
which include MRSA.
Nonetheless, they wrote that the breakthrough suggests there may be more similar
compounds like malacidin to discover.
It is also a promising sign that this new class follows closely after the 2015
discovery of teixobactin. Prior to that there had been a 30-year drought, prompting
dire warnings of a “post-antibiotic apocalypse” if bacteria continue to adapt to
withstand essential drugs.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/antibiotic-soil-new-discovery-malacidins-
teixobactin-nature-rockefeller-new-york-mrsa-gram-positive-a8207921.html