bacteriaIn addition to causing illness and death, they also run the risk of evolving into drug-resistant superbugs that outperform our best antibiotics. This makes them a major threat to our future. As the search for new antibiotics continues, combination therapies are being studied to help block multiple bacterial escape routes and reduce the chance of microbes developing resistance.

A study by American and Chinese researchers has shown that dual-action antibiotics called Macrolones can make it 100 million times harder for bacteria to develop resistance. These synthetic compounds were the first in the fifties It was produced from old antibiotics that had been discovered and to which bacteria quickly developed resistance.

There is no space for bacteria to escape

These antibiotics kill bacteria in two different ways It eliminates. The first of these methods prevents DNA replication by blocking an enzyme specific to bacteria, or by inhibiting ribosomes, which are protein-producing organelles in the cell. Sometimes it does both.

biological scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Elena Alexandrov and his team synthesized three new macrolones. They then investigated how these compounds blocked the cell functions of bacteria. Macrolonsdestroyed laboratory-grown bacteria without activating known resistance genes and Streptococcus pneumoniae It showed “dramatically improved activity” against superbugs known for their drug resistance, such as

New antibiotic pairs need to be strengthened against deadly and agile bacterial strains. However, bacteria should not be underestimated.