Researchers have discovered a new antibiotic that can kill serious infections in mice without causing resistance; and the microbe was hidden in a pile of dirt.
The antibiotic, dubbed teixobactin, could be a new way to fight threatening superbugs such as MSRA and drug-resistant tuberculosis, Reuters reported
"The discovery of this novel compound challenges long-held scientific beliefs and holds great promise for treating an array of menacing infections," Kim Lewis, a professor at Northeastern University in the United States and co-founder of the NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals, which has patented teixobactin, told Reuters.
Teixobactin belongs to a new class of compounds and destroys infectious bacteria by breaking down their cell walls and binding to multiple targets, reducing the threat of resistance.
To make their findings researchers used a novel microfluidic device to grow bacteria in nothing other than a plastic storage crate filled with soil, MIT Technology Review reported. The diluted dirt came from some of the scientist's own backyards and captured a single soil microbe on a two-inch-long microfluidic chip that acts as a portable diffusion chamber. The chip was then placed back in the soil, allowing the microbe to function in its natural environment. Through this method the team was eventually able to grow colonies of bacteria large enough to be transferred to a petri dish and assessed for antibiotic qualities.
"The discovery of a potential new class of antibiotics is good news," Richard Seabrook of Britain's Wellcome Trust medical charity told Reuters. "Screening previously unculturable soil bacteria is a new twist in the search ... and it is encouraging to see this approach yielding results. However, we will not know whether teixobactin will be effective in humans until this research is taken ... to clinical trials."
The findings were reported in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
