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A “giant breakthrough” has been recorded in the fight against resistance to antibiotics, which is seen as the greatest threat to human health. Scientists use supercomputers to create new drugs 56 times more effective than existing antibiotics
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antibiotic resistance It is one of the most formidable challenges facing modern medicine. It is estimated that around 700,000 people die each year from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and this number is expected to rise to the millions in the coming years.
LIFE EXPECTATION CAN LOWER 20 YEARS
Thanks to the invention of antibiotics, a remarkable increase in human lifespan has been seen. It is predicted that life expectancy could decrease by 20 years if effective antibiotics lose their effectiveness. Some scientists have found the solution to this increased resistance by developing more effective antibiotics that will destroy diseases faster before they can mutate into resistance.
GIANT BREAKTHROUGH WITH SUPER COMPUTERS
The scientists behind this breakthrough said they achieved this success with the use of supercomputers. University of Portsmouth’s Dr. For their research, published in the journal PNAS, an international research team led by Gerhard Koenig used computers to redesign existing antibiotics to keep pace with changing diseases.
Computer chemistry expert Dr. Koenig antibiotics and antibiotic He states the importance of the struggle against resistance in these words: “Antibiotics form the cornerstones of modern medicine. Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to human health. There is an urgent need to develop new ways to combat ever-evolving bacteria.”
A DIFFERENT PATH WAS FOLLOWED
“Developing a new antibiotic often consists of finding and targeting a cell element that is essential for the survival of a wide variety of different bacteria,” said Dr. Saying that this is a very difficult task, Koenig pointed out that very few antibiotics that can be classified as new have been developed in recent years. However, Dr. Koenig and his team chose a different method:
“We took a simpler approach, which involved starting from an existing antibiotic that was ineffective against new resistant strains and modifying it to overcome resistance mechanisms.”
56 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN AVAILABLE ANTIBITORICS
The research team claims that the drug candidate it submitted for approval, which has not yet undergone clinical trials, is up to 56 times more active than current antibiotics against the bacterial strains tested on the World Health Organization’s essential drugs list.
Moreover, Dr. Koenig argues that their success was not limited to this, they also defeated the most notorious bacteria against antibiotic resistance: “Our top candidate is not only more effective against the tested targets, but also shows activity against the top three bacteria on the WHO priority list where the current antibiotics tested are not working.”
IT WILL TURN OVER WITH COMPUTERS
This work demonstrates how science can be used to combat antibiotic resistance by predicting the computerized evolution of new drugs.
Dr. Koenig believes computers are the means by which we are successful in this fight: “Our computers are getting faster every year. So, there is hope that we can reverse the trend. If computers can beat the world champion at chess, why can’t they beat bacteria too.”
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