Drugs/Therapy

How Antibiotics Kill Superbugs

By Joie M Gahum | Update Date: Feb 06, 2017 07:10 AM EST

A previous treatment that is capable of brutally killing bacteria is found to be successful by researchers through a particular type of antibiotic. This discovery may lead to a new generation of drugs capable of killing the evolutionary deadly bacteria that medicine is facing nowadays.

According to Independent UK, amid the growing reports of bacteria being able to resist antibiotics, researchers have finally found a new type of antibiotic that may be able to destroy it. This may lead to a new set of antibiotics that can treat superbugs in the very near future.

However, researchers found that this particular antibiotic exerted too much physical force in destroying bacteria. Further tests are being conducted to be able to achieve similar properties that this antibiotic possess to create a "new generation" of drugs that can defeat even the most drug-resistant superbugs.

There has been a growing concern in the increasing number of bacteria being able to resist antibiotics. This is the case around the globe and not only within a specific country. The UK is already organizing a meeting together with the United Nations to be able to discuss the problem.

The research conducted at the University College London used sensitive equipment to measure the forces that four different antibiotics applied on bacterial cells. One of the antibiotics, vancomycin was included in the experiment. This antibiotic is currently being used as a last resort treatment for MRSA.

Another antibiotic involved in the experiment is oritavancin, used to treat complex skin infections as reported by The Sun UK.

Oritavancin was observed to be able to kill bacteria within 15 minutes and can rip apart bacteria cells. Similar modifications and experiments will be implemented to find a way to use this development in creating a new generation antibiotic that could tackle multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

At present, drug-resistant infections are being treated as a threat as high as terrorism and climate change. This latest breakthrough will help in formulating ways to improve and fight these infections for a better and brighter future for healthcare across the globe.

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