Yahoo News Scientists develop molecule that reverses antibiotic resistance
Scientists have made a significant breakthrough in the fight against superbugs.
Researchers have developed a molecule that reverses antibiotic resistance in multiple strains of bacteria at once.
Infections which were previously easily treatable have grown immune to antibiotics – but scientists have now created a molecule that attacks an enzyme which makes bacteria resistant.
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The molecule reverses antibiotic resistance and could allow us to use medicine that are currently useless.
"We’ve lost the ability to use many of our mainstream antibiotics," lead researcher Bruce Geller from Oregon State University, told Science Alert.
"Everything’s resistant to them now. That’s left us to try to develop new drugs to stay one step ahead of the bacteria, but the more we look the more we don’t find anything new," he said.
"So that's left us with making modifications to existing antibiotics, but as soon as you make a chemical change, the bugs mutate and now they're resistant to the new, chemically modified antibiotics.”
The news comes after a woman died last year from an infection that was resistant to every kind of antibiotic.
These superbugs have been deemed a “fundamental threat” by the United Nations and it is predicted they will kill 300 million people by 2050, according to a report.
