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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."

3 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. MRSA is a big deal... by Bushwuly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to work in a residential facility for disabled children with severe/profound mental retardation, and those who had the hardest time were the ones that contracted MRSA. Because these kids had such significant physical problems, they were often in and out of hospitals and would contract the virus while admitted there. Besides the scary fact that this bug is prevalent in hospitals of all places, it is so dangerous and contageous to children that those who contract it have to be kept in isolation.

    Every day I would walk by the isolation ward and look in, just to let the kids know that someone was concerned for them. These children already had the odds stacked against them, and to top it off with the fact those who attended to them had to avoid all physical contact cut me to the heart. How sad is it to be a kid who can never be hugged, having to live without anyone touching them?

    If someone can isolate and develop an antibiotic that can cure MRSA, I'll be one of the first in line to shake their hand.

    --
    Get over yourself.
  2. Re:Superbug vaccine... by drgonzo59 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    MRSA is already here and is bad enough, but there is already fear of the vancomycin resistant staph. Vancomycin, as it is clear from your story, is a last resort antibiotic, when all others have failed. There is evidence that there could be a super-super-bug that would be resistant to vancomycin as well. The common mechanism of action of these antibiotics is to provent the assembly of the cell wall. It so happens that only prokariotic cells (which staph. aureus is) have this external cell wall structure to prevent them from "exploding" due to high internal osmotic pressure. So this cell wall has been and is a good target for antiobiotics.

    It is interesting how most of the antibiotics -- this new one and including the first one -- penicillin, are sythesized and produced by fungi. There is a constant battle for nutrition and space between the bacteria and the fungi -- some kind of an evolutionary yin and yang. One will always try to overtake the other and will develop new mechanisms for resistance or attack.

  3. Re:Superbug vaccine... by wizardofodd · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Talk about timing... 4 weeks ago I was diagnosed with MRSA. They kept me in the hospital in isolation for the first week. The MRSA was located in my right foot. It was so severe that the had to amputate it to in order to save my life. The worst part of the ordeal was spending 2 weeks without Slashdot. The best part was the spongebath with 3 of the nurses. :-)

    Now I'm at home taking a antobiotic called cefazolin every 8 hours until the remainder of the infection clears up. But now I get to spend all day reading Slashdot. I guess somepeople would give their right foot to be able to do that. ;-)

    Hey, what do you expect me to do, cry about it? Just keeping my spirits up.