New Class of Antibiotic Zosurbalpin Effective Against Deadly Drug-Resistant Superbug

• Researchers have identified an entirely new class of antibiotics that can kill bacteria resistant to most current drugs.
• Zosurbalpin is highly effective against the carbapenem-resistant bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii (Crab).
• The crab can kill up to 60% of people infected with it. It commonly causes infections of the urinary tract, respiratory tract, and bloodstream, which can lead to sepsis.

Zosurbalpin is highly effective against the carbapenem-resistant bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii (Crab), which is classified as a “priority 1” pathogen by the World Health Organization due to its increasing presence in hospitals, reports Science Alert.

The crab can kill up to 60% of people infected with it. It commonly causes infections of the urinary tract, respiratory tract, and bloodstream, which can lead to sepsis. It is responsible for about 20% of infections in places like hospitals, nursing homes or other similar health care facilities.

Antibiotics usually work by breaking through the cell wall that surrounds the infectious bacteria to reach the vital machinery inside. Once inside the cell, antibiotics block that machinery in a way that either stops the bacteria from growing or causes the cells to die.

The crab is a clinical challenge because it has a double-layered cell wall, a feature microbiologists describe as “gram negative.” This means that antibiotics must cross both layers to reach the vital machinery inside the bacteria to kill them and treat the infection.

An exception to this rule is penicillin antibiotics, where the target is in the cell wall itself. These antibiotics, known as carbapenems, were derived from penicillin some 48 years after it was first discovered and still work in the same way.

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2024-01-08 08:10:50
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