Scripps Research Scientists Reengineer an Antibiotic to Overcome Dangerous…Resistant Bacteria

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.scripps.edu/news/press_releases/20110824_boger.html

Scripps Research Scientists Reengineer an Antibiotic to Overcome Dangerous Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

LA JOLLA, CA – August 24, 2011 – A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have successfully reengineered an important antibiotic to kill the deadliest antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The compound could one day be used clinically to treat patients with life-threatening and highly resistant bacterial infections.

The results were published in an advanced online issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“(These results) have true clinical significance and chart a path forward for the development of next generation antibiotics for the treatment of the most serious resistant bacterial infections,” said Dale L. Boger, who is Richard and Alice Cramer Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute and senior author of the new study. “The result could not be predicted. It really required the preparation of the molecule and the establishment of its properties.”

The compound synthesized is an analogue of the well-known commercial antibiotic vancomycin.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja207142h

[applegrove]

1. My cousin's husband had a really bad infection after hip surgery. He was in hospital for two months.

He is now home and on some new antibiotic that costs $10,000 every six weeks. Fortunately we have public health care in Canada.

[trotsky]

2. Great news and this is where we should be conducting a lot of research.

Finding safer, more effective ways to kill harmful bacteria in the body and just as importantly, neutralize their toxins.