Making Antibiotics More Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

The Age of Antibiotics may prove to be our downfall as more and more microbes find a way around the compounds we use to treat bacterial infections. A potential antibiotic is no more tested, synthesized, clinically tested and approved than a bacterial strain finds a way to circumvent its action and shares this solution with other bacteria. While physicians are becoming more concerned about the lack of new antibiotics in their arsenals to treat patients with methicillin-resistant Stapholococcus aureus (MRSA) or other multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, researchers are exploring alternative means to fight MDR microbes that can devastate human health. In Maryn McKenna’s book Superbug, Dr. Robert Daum advocated producing a vaccine against MRSA to prevent infection rather than lose the antibiotic battle during treatment (see the Nature News article on the same subject). Some scientists are rethinking bacteriophages and their use. A team of researchers at North Carolina State University discovered another option:  A small molecule that attenuates the antibiotic resistance in Klebsiella pneumonia. Continue reading “Making Antibiotics More Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria”