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Possible Antibiotic for MRSA Superbug

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the supersquishing-the-superbug dept.

darkmeridian writes "Merck has discovered a possible treatment for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a virulent superbug resistant to many current antibiotics. The new compound, platensimycin, was found in a sample of South African soil and works by preventing the bacteria from assembling fatty acids into its cell membrane. This mechanism of action is novel among antibiotics, most of which currently block DNA assembly or protein assembly. Of course, this product still has to undergo human testing, but apparently looks promising."

6 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Source...code. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The new compound, platensimycin, was found in a sample of South African soil and works by preventing the bacteria from assembling fatty acids into its cell membrane."

    Just one more reason for us to not destroy our environment.

  2. Won't last long.. by zcat_NZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The first humans to start using this drug will probably take half of the prescribed course and stop as soon as they're feeling better, thus helping to evolve a new generation of superbug resistant to this 'superantibiotic'

    --
    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
    1. Re:Won't last long.. by Idarubicin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The first humans to start using this drug will probably take half of the prescribed course and stop as soon as they're feeling better...

      I'm actually hoping that the first humans to start using this drug will be receiving it from an IV bag and will remain anchored to their hospital beds.

      If a patient is carrying a bug that's resistant to all other commonly-used antibiotics, I don't really want them walking about on the street.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    2. Re:Won't last long.. by aswang · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The thing is, most of us do harbor extremely resistant organisms in our gut and on our skin. For one thing, community-acquired MRSA has a prevalence of upwards of 30% in some communities. But most of us are loaded with things like Actinobacter and Stenotrophomonas which usually aren't bad actors until we get pumped full of antibiotics that wipe out the rest of our normal flora that keep them in check, so that these multi-drug resistant organisms are all that are left floating around in our bloodstream, free to frolic and play.

      Because hospitals are nothing but incubators for antibiotic resistance, physicians actually do their best to try to get their patient out of there as fast as humanly possible, and sometimes this means sending people home with home nursing to get their 14 or 21 or 28 day course of vancomycin instead of sitting around on the ward letting their bacteria exchange plasmids with the bacteria on the other patients, in the walls, crawling all over the equipment, and (probably in the highest concentrations) in the computer keyboards that the hospital staff use.

      But the biggest lesson: don't rely on antibiotics to kill virulent bacteria. The best defense is washing your hands frequently.

  3. Nature article: antibiotic may never be used by tehanu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An article in the most recent issue of Nature discusses this new antibiotic in more detail - the process by which it was discovered, its nature etc. The article however ends with a discussion that the chances of this antibiotic making it to the market is pretty low. First of all, it has to be tested to make sure it is stable (this apparently is a concern that has already risen in animal tests of the new antibiotic) and non-toxic to humans. However, even if the technical problems are resolved, financial problems - antibiotics are simply not profitable for pharmaceutical companies - may kill it. The reasons for the financial problems apply to antibiotics in general:

    - It is likely that this antibiotic if released into common use will "meet the fate of its predecessors" as bacteria rapidly require resistance to it. So the time span when it will under heavy demand will be short.
    - Regulatory hurdles. "the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not have clear guidelines for approving new antibiotics" meaning the process is even more long and tedious than for normal drugs.
    - Antibiotics are only used for sparingly and only for a week or two.

    A quote:

    But "the next steps are fraught with danger", warns microbiologist Carl Nathan of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York. "The obstacles are truly formidable."

  4. MRSA treatment already exists by ParanoidCowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's called Vancomycin, and it's been around for a while. If the pharmacy doesn't stock that, Teicoplanin will also work. Quite honestly, the MRSA is not exactly a superbug. For the most part, these organisms are caught in the hospital - proper handwashing and isolation should prevent most people from evening catching these bugs. The real "superbug" these days is Vancomycin Insensitive Staph Aureus (VISA) - organisms that require concentrations of vancomycin that come close to causing neprotoxicity (kidneys) and ototoxicity (ears) and who knows what else.