How Can New Shape-Shifting Antibiotics Help Combat Deadly Infections?
A new defense against drug-resistant superbugs-an antibiotic that can shape-shift by rearranging its atoms has been discovered by researchers.
Antibiotic Resistance: Facts & Figures
In the United States alone, drug-resistant bacteria and fungi infect almost 3 million people per year and kill about 35,000. Antibiotics are essential and effective, but in recent years overuse has led to some bacteria developing resistance to them. The infections are so difficult to treat, the World Health Organization deemed antibiotic resistance a top 10 global public health threat.
Moses came up with the idea of shape-shifting antibiotics while observing tanks in military training exercises. With rotating turrets and nimble movements, the tanks could respond quickly to possible threats.
‘Vancomycin, the antibiotic�s bacteria-fighting performance was improved by combing the drug with bullvalene, a fluxional molecule. ’
A few years later, Moses learned of a molecule called bullvalene. Bullvalene is a fluxional molecule, meaning its atoms can swap positions. This gives it a changing shape with over a million possible configurations-exactly the fluidity Moses was looking for.
New Shape-Shifting Antibiotics: The Key to Fighting Deadly Infections
He turned to click chemistry, a Nobel Prize-winning class of fast, high-yielding chemical reactions that "click" molecules together reliably. This makes the reactions more efficient for wide-scale use."Click chemistry is great," says Moses, who studied this revolutionary development under two-time Nobel laureate K. Barry Sharpless. "It gives you certainty and the best chance you've got of making complex things."
Using this technique, Moses and his colleagues created a new antibiotic with two vancomycin "warheads" and a fluctuating bullvalene center.
Moses tested the new drug in collaboration with Dr. Tatiana Soares da-Costa (University of Adelaide). The researchers gave the drug to VRE-infected wax moth larvae, which are commonly used to test antibiotics. Additionally, the bacteria didn't develop resistance to the new antibiotic.
Researchers can use click chemistry with shape-shifting antibiotics to create a multitude of new drugs, Moses explains. Such weapons against infection may even be key to our species' survival and evolution.
"If we can invent molecules that mean the difference between life and death," he says, "that'd be the greatest achievement ever."
Source: Eurekalert