Slashdot Mirror
Possible Antibiotic for MRSA Superbug
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."
Oh well... I guess it's good that they may actually get some treatment options for this disease. It sounds horrible. According to http://citypaper.net/articles/2005-03-03/cb2.shtm
So if some stranger in the supermarket asks you to look at their rash and wonders if it's contagious... don't hesitate to punch them. Or maybe you guys don't live in quite the redneck neighborhood that I do...
Funnypics
"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.
...platensimycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or PRSA, a virulent superbug.
Of course, a new antibiotic is never the final word in the war on bacteria. The introduction of this new antibiotic, platensimycin, provides yet another opportunity for bacteria to mutate and to develop defenses against it. Eventually, the bacteria will become resistant to platensimycin.
What is not known is whether we can continuously develop new antibiotics that kill new antibiotic-resistant strains of germs and that will not kill human cells. As each successive generation of new antibiotics bombards the bacteria and as it adapts to the new medicines, will the bacteria become so powerful that it cannot be killed?
When will Washington ban the feeding of antibiotics to cattle? I am referring to the use of antibiotics as a food supplement. It is insane.
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
Whilst your comment seems to be factually correct, more people will read it and take it seriously if you supply a source:
:)
"Vancomycin and teicoplanin are glycopeptide antibiotics used to treat MRSA infections."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancomycin
Plus you get some free karma for doing it. Always works!
I'll probably be modded down for this...
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."
Viagara was an accident. They were testing phosphodiesterase inhibitors as a therapy for keeping heart vessels open. It didn't work so well, but they discovered the unexpected side effect of opening vessels in the penis when the subjects were reluctant to return their unused pills.
Many flock to Africa to eat soil. Contract Malaria.
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
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.
Well actually there is vancomycin resistance out there already... VRE is not normally a problem, but has been shown i am pretty sure to transfer its resistance to MRSA in the lab (ie your VRSA), but it hasnt been seen in the wild (thank $Deity) yet.
and as with most things in nature, if it can, it will... (or someone will do it for it...)
It's called Vancomycin, and it's been around for a while. If the pharmacy doesn't stock that, Teicoplanin will also work. Quite honestly, the MRSA is not exactly a superbug. For the most part, these organisms are caught in the hospital - proper handwashing and isolation should prevent most people from evening catching these bugs. The real "superbug" these days is Vancomycin Insensitive Staph Aureus (VISA) - organisms that require concentrations of vancomycin that come close to causing neprotoxicity (kidneys) and ototoxicity (ears) and who knows what else.
It seems to me if your flesh is being eaten away by an unstoppable bacteria, you're going to be pretty willing to test out a new antibiotic. Sometimes the FDA clinical trials process just isn't sensible.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Well, since Platensimycin inhibits FabF, which is 3-oxo-[acyl carrier protein] synthase II, and vancomycin prevents incorporation of N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetylglucosamine - peptide subunits from being incorporated into the peptidoglycan matrix; their mechanisms are exclusive. Theoretically, Platensimycin will therefore work on both MRSA and VRSA strains. Practically, strain sensitivities vary , but with the current level of information, one would expect the new drug to be just as effective on VRSA strains.
Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
After learning about this fruit and its many documented benefits, I bought into the company that brought it to the market in the US.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
For more information from PubMed on the mangosteen fruit and its benefits, see these articles at PubMed via NIH.gov. Or, go to my website.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Not to put a monkey wrench into things, but a substantial proportion of the people reading this are colonized with Staph aureus, and depending upon what part of the world you hail from and your recent medical history, there's a good chance that it's MRSA. If you know a friendly microbiologist, get them to swab your nose. You'd be surprised.
= Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1653404 7&query_hl=6&itool=pubmed_docsum/
= Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1644711 0&query_hl=9&itool=pubmed_docsum/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd
MRSA is typically resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics, including penicillins and cephalosporins. Just because it's resistant does not mean that it's going to eat away at your flesh. Methicillin sensitive strains will do that just as happily, particularly if they produce leukocidins (eg: MRSA strain USA300).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd
Calling vancomycin a cure for MRSA is exceedingly short sighted. VRSA/VISA (the I stands for intermediate, not insensitive), is becoming increasingly common in some regions. Topical agents, such as mupirocin or chlorhexidine may help to attenuate nasal and skin carriage (groin, axilla etc), but reports of MuRSA are also beginning to surface. It's an uphill battle.
My advice? (And yes, I hold a PhD in the field). Avoid contributing to the problem. Don't suck down antibiotics every time you get the sniffles, especially if you don't have to. More importantly, if your doctor insists upon it, don't stop taking the antibiotics the moment you feel better: finish the entire course, as prescribed. Data to associate feedlot/livestock antibiotic supplements and the transmission of resistant pathogens into human populations is scant. Worry first about the factors you can control. Your children will thank you for it.
How did you spell "phosphodiesterase" correctly and fail at "Viagra"?
Among these measures is to target virulence rather than the pathogen itself. The reason is that a species of pathogen can have varying virulence and you want the last virulent to win the competition for the ecological niche (human body). Ewald gives an example of a particular protein used by a bacteria to convert human lung tissue to useful food -- a protein that costs the bacteria about 5% of its budget but has huge returns. Vaccinating against this protein can let the more benign variants beat out the virulent variants for the lungs of humans, and give the human immune system the kick it needs to construct antibodies to suppress further infection.
Seastead this.
For people with chronic lung disease, like cystic fibrosis, who experience repeated pneumonias and infection with the like of MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the addition of another antibiotic to the team of vanco and linezolid can literally be a life saver.
Given the life and death reality of our reliance on antibiotics, I'd never classify any bacteria as "no problem." That perspective more than whispers at a superiority complex that could be demolished by the mutation of a tiny little bug. As for me, I'll continue to use them only when necessary and appropriate, and will always finish my prescription!
Clearly he was trying to get it past your spam filters.
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
This isn't newsworthy to me. I don't get viruses - I use Linux.
*ducks*
You don't imagine how close you're to the truth.
The S. Aureus is a bacteria that lives on the skin and is harmless most of the time. I said "most", because the bugs is really nasty in some specific area :
- intensive care : patients aren't in good shape, and the bug tries to enter into them. (Some strains are very good at crawling along needles of perfusion)
- surgery : the few specimens that survived the disinfection may try to jump into the wound. Bones (like after an accident) are an example.of wound that aren't very well protected against infection (among other reasons : lower blood flow compared to other organs and thus harder to bring white blood cells and antibodies).
Because it lives on the skin surface they can realy easily travel from one individual to another, just by plain skin contact (think handshaking or on object that everyone touch). And because they're harmless most of the time, there are no symptoms (the carrier isn't sick) and they can travel unnoticed until they reach one critical patient.
So the only patient that is feeling realy bad is the one at the end of the chain (the one in critical care). Among the chain, there's a lot of people who aren't sick (and don't give a fuck about it) and (mostly healthy) people that may have minor skin wounds (requiring some treatement) but don't follow their treatment as they should (because they feel well).
And that's one reason why bacteria are exposed to sub-lethal doses of antibiotics, some of them surviving better, and evolution (huh... sorry... Intelligent Design) doing it's job and making better superbugs.
Note: other reasons appart from bad usage of antibiotics are :
- Moronic prescrition / Pharmaceutical over-hyping : Doctor hears that superbugs are common. Doctors hears about (=gets brainwashed by marketing departement) new superdrug that kills superbug. Doctor start prescribing superdrug for *EVERY SINGLE CASE*, even when not needed. Superbugs become Hyperbugs. repeat ad nauseam.
That's why method are developped to help determine when and what drug is needed. As a student a worked in such a lab.
- Industrial agriculture : Some huge agricultural corporation do very stupid things which all end up with environnement becoming polluted with antibiotics and resistant bacteria appearing "in the wild" due to exposition to sub-lethal doses.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
MRSA is a variant of common-or-garden Staph that is resistant to most antibiotics. It's not, however, resistant to soap and hot water.
.....
The problem is that antibiotics are being badly misused. After about three days on penicillin, with two days to go, you start feeling OK again. Now, at this point, you may be tempted to stop taking the stuff. That is the worst thing you can do. Your immune system has recovered a bit, and is now just about strong enough to fight off the bacteria. However, unless you can be sure that you have killed every last one of the germs, there is still a chance that they might breed. And the ones that survived the onslaught of penicillin are going to pass on the "double-hard bastard" gene to their own offspring. So you need to complete the course, using your own recovered immune system with penicillin as backup, in order to deal with the superbugs.
People failing to finish courses of antibiotics are costing the National Health Service {and by extension the taxpayer} money. In fact, penicillin {or the artificially-manufactured equivalent, Amoxil} isn't used so much anymore because there are resistant strains of so many bacteria. My cruel side thinks it's a shame you can't ROLLBACK a medical treatment and leave people sick if they don't complete the treatment properly
On the other side of the coin, if you keep taking penicillin for too long, your immune system will eventually stop trying so hard {and again you'll be breeding penicillin-resistant bugs}. Plus, the stuff isn't any respector of the essential bacteria in your body. Too many antibiotics passing through your system might even kill some of the essential bacteria in your septic tank, causing it to smell and making you unpopular with the neighbours.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
A lot of ignorant people are saying "MRSA is no big deal, vancomycin cures it". Well in my case there was no way that a dose of vancomycin strong enough to get MRSA out of my clavicle, scapula and humerus wasn't going to do some pretty major damage to me. There was a shortage of beds in Intensive Care as well, so it was decided to treat me with some other drug - I was so sick by that time that it's kinda patchy (such as my not remembering exactly what antibiotic cured me), but I recall being told that they were going to treat me with this stuff for 10 days, and hopefully it would work, as it was the ONLY antiobiotic besides vancomycin that my strain would respond to. I was told that if I took this medicine for 14 days it would kill me by shutting down my liver.
After 10 days I was a delightful dayglo yellow colour, but the bug had died. Meanwhile I have to live with the aftermath of septic arthritis, osteomyelitis and periperal neuritis. In practical terms this means my shoulder had the cartlidges (sp?) eaten away and the bone surfaces have an interesting "finish" where they grind together when I move my arm. The nerves that pass through my shoulder were damaged by both the infection and the antibiotic, and I have constant pain which feels kinda like a permanantly dislocating shoulder. I take a lot of oxycodone, and as a result dont crap real well. Every 6 weeks I get a nerve block which gives me a few days (typically 3 to 5) with much lower pain. Getting these injections into the brachial plexus so often carries a real risk of further infection or nerve damage though.
It's the only time I've ever got a letter from a pathologist, as when they did the tests that finally found what antibiotics would work I got a letter in red ink from them saying "See your doctor NOW as you have a LETHAL INFECTION". By that time I had acquired the delightful aroma of rotting meat - leave a raw shoulder roast out in the sun for a few weeks - that was the smell 8 inches from my nose.
I was having the wound scraped clean twice a day, with it being packed with all sorts of things to try to help the wound drain. There was a hole through my shoulder - it was possible to slide a 5mm diameter glass rod from the top of my shoulder, through the center of what used to be a synovial capsule and out the other hole in my armpit.
So don't trivialise MRSA - it's really impacted on my life, apart from nearly killing me. And don't trivialise vancomycin, unless you consider potential organ failure as trivial. MRSA and vancomycin are both very nasty stuff.
And similar.
In that particular case, I sat the individual down and explained how anti-biotics work and the importance of finishing ALL the medication. He nodded and seemed to understand, and then said, "Yeah, well, I'm going to save the rest of these pills for when I get sick again in a few weeks. I hate the cold season."
It's at times like those when I feel strongly compelled to get on a rocket ship and nuke the planet from orbit.
-FL
I do research on Staph. It's frustrating to everyone doing this work that in 50 years, we have really just a handful of targets in bacteria to attack. Here are our targets and some examples of the antibiotics we use
0 6.html
1) DNA replication/Gyrase (cipro)
2) RNA synthesis (rifampin)
3) folate metabolism (sulfa drugs)
4) Protein synthesis (erythromycin, chloramphenicol, linezolid)
5) cell wall (penicillin, vancomycin)
What's great about this this new drug from Merck is that it's target isn't on the list above. It's a new target (fatty acid metabolism) and it's well tolerated by mammals.
But it's not the only new one out there. Check out these papers on:
a) targeting the proteolytic machinery of bacteria, i.e. clp proteases
Brötz-Oesterhelt, H. et al. Dysregulation of bacterial proteolytic machinery by a new class of antibiotics. Nature Med. 11, 1082-1087 (2005)
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v11/n10/abs/nm13
and
b) targeting Holliday junctions, i.e. how DNA recombines
Gunderson Carl and Segall Anca, 2006. DNA repair, a novel antibacterial target: Holliday junction-trapping peptides induce DNA damage and chromosome segregation defects. Mol. Micro. 59 (4), 1129-1148.
http://segall-lab.com/PDF/Gunderson2006.pdf
And don't forget to wash your hands! Make a researcher happy and save the drugs for another day!