Collaboration

How ineffective antibiotics cope with superbugs

Medical Xpress news: Ineffective antibiotics form strong teams against deadly super bacteria

At the University of New York at Buffalo, scientists have found a new way to fight superbugs, defeating them not by quality, but by quantity. A combination of three antibacterial drugs, each of which individually could not cope with antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, effectively destroyed two pathogens out of six included in the list of particularly dangerous bacteria ESKAPE. ESKAPE is bacteria such as Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter. All these pathogens are deadly, they infect over two million people every year, 23 thousand of whom die. A significant number of nosocomial infections are also caused by these microorganisms.

Brian Tsuji, the author of studies devoted to the fight against the pathogens Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii, explained that the bacteria from the ESKAPE list are an extremely serious problem, since they have developed resistance to almost all known antibiotics. In order to cope with them, according to Associate Professor Tsuzhi, it is necessary to change the way of thinking. Both studies were published in the spring of 2017. Brian Tsuzhi and his colleagues have proved that the triple action of a combination of antibiotics can become a new weapon in the war against superbugs.

Such combinations of antibiotics are often used in the case of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but the exact dosage and composition of the combinations are quite complex. A team from the State University of New York at Buffalo tested the effect of polymyxin B, meropenem and ampicillin with sulbactam on Acinetobacter baumannii, and on Klebsiella pneumoniae - polymyxin B, meropenem and rifampin. Each antibiotic from each combination was chosen in such a way as to complement its "colleagues". Antibacterial drugs act on bacteria in different ways, and an attack from several sides at once can "outwit" microorganisms.

The effect of antibiotics was tested comprehensively – one at a time, two in different combinations and three at once. Scientists measured, firstly, the time it took for antibiotics to destroy pathogens, and secondly, the time in which the bacteria restored their population. Tests with Acinetobacter baumannii showed that none of the three antibiotics was able to cope with the harmful microorganism on their own. Of the pairs, a combination of polymyxin B and meropenem had an effect, but after three days the bacterial population reached the same size that it had before exposure to antibiotics.  In a triple combination, the addition of ampicillin with sulbactam prevented the growth of bacteria, and the number of pathogens did not increase in 96 hours. Single antibiotics also did not work against Klebsiella pneumoniae, and after exposure to polymyxin B and rifampin simultaneously, the colony grew back after 30 hours. Meropenem in this case reduced the resistance of bacteria to polymyxin B and rifampin, and Klebsiella pneumoniae restored its population only after 72 hours.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  24.05.2017