Alarming increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and rapid decline of new antibiotics in the market have created a global havoc in healthcare. statistics say that bacteria have become resistant to all most all the antibiotics currently used in clinical settings. prevalence of superbugs such as dangerous ndm-1 (new delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1) and kpc (carbapenemase producing k. pneumoniae) superbugs has become very high in the world including the indian subcontinent. the rise of superbugs has called for alternative ways to tackle them. we successfully developed a new compound that restores the efficacy of antibiotics that have become ineffective because superbugs have developed resistance to them. this new compound restores the efficacy (enhancement by >80-1250 fold) of tetracycline antibiotics towards ndm-1 (k. pneumoniae and e. coli) clinical isolates. the mechanism is attributed to the understanding that this new compound shuts down the energy required for the efflux pumps of bacteria that throw these antibiotics out. this new compound also potentiates the antibiotics to more dangerous and tough-to-kill biofilms of carbapenem resistant a. baumannii that is prevalent in hospital surfaces. the combination of this new compound and antibiotic effectively treats acute and chronic burn/surgical wound infections in mice models caused by the carbapenem resistant a. baumannii and kpc superbugs. the combination approach is more effective compared to the currently used antibiotics in clinics such as tetracyclines, erythromycin and colistin. more importantly, the new compound stops the bacteria from developing resistance to the antibiotics. this is very important because the current marketed technology of combination approach (beta-lactam antibiotic + beta-lactamase inhibitor) has the drawback of development of bacterial resistance thereby requiring new inhibitors. however, the present innovation of combination approach does not have the limitation of development of bacterial resistance. this present innovation has the potential to revolutionize the antibiotic therapy for the treatment of bacterial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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