Back in May, we talked about a serious warning issued by the World Health Organization regarding antibiotics and their resistance. Almost thirty years have passed since the last major discovery, and now a team of scientists at Northeastern University in Boston has uncovered the enormous potential of Teixobactin, a compound that could treat conditions like tuberculosis and pseudomembranous colitis, while also paving the way for a new generation of antibiotics.
A hidden reservoir of antibiotics
To find the most powerful antibiotic generator, you don't need to enter any laboratory; instead, look down. Scientists have long believed that soil is full of antibiotics, thanks to the natural ability of bacteria to fight off other pathogens. The problem is that only about one percent of those bacteria can be cultured in a laboratory setting. In other words, if modern medicine wants to develop new antibiotics, it must step outside the traditional lab. That's how professors Kim Lewis and Slava Epstein of the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston ended up in "a small field in Maine", and with the help of a compact device, they found the great antibiotic hope of the next decades: Teixobactin.
The iChip: an underground hotel for bacteria
The device in question, dubbed the "iChip", acts as an "underground hotel" for bacteria. This hotel includes small isolated modules, one assigned to each bacterium, designed so that soil can permeate the modules while keeping the bacteria in place. Of the ten thousand bacteria cultured, twenty-five have produced substances that could be used as antibiotics, and among them appears Teixobactin. Early tests have shown that Teixobactin is highly toxic to bacteria, but not to mammalian tissue, and it managed to clear in mice what would be a lethal dose of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Scientists believe that thanks to Teixobactin's unusual attack methods, it is very unlikely that bacteria will be able to acquire natural resistance.
A promising future
Professor Lewis explains that they can currently cure several models of infection while maintaining a ratio of 10 mg/kg, so it should work well in humans. Needless to say, the number of trials on the horizon is daunting, and the first control groups would not be organized for another two years. In the best-case scenario, we'd only have to wait half a decade for Teixobactin to become the new spearhead in combating resistant infections. And if that weren't enough, Lewis and Epstein's iChip system will surely give rise to more antibiotics. What seemed like a lost battle has just changed for the better.
