Conceivable new anti-microbial created for drug-resistant pulmonary microorganism

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: Johns Hopkins University


• Date: 09 Dec,2020

Scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Medicine have developed a potential new antibiotic for a pathogen that is notoriously resistant to drugs and often lethal for people with cystic fibrosis and other lung disorders.

The pathogen, called Mycobacterium abscessus, is related to some better-known bacterium that causes tuberculosis and leprosy but has recently emerged as a distinct species demonstrating most often as a virulent lung disease. The team of scientists from the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Chemistry and the School of Medicine’s infectious diseases department published their findings in the journal Communications Biology.

The group has developed one of the first prospective treatments of a bacterium which has no FDA-approved treatments and a cure rate less than 50%. Before the compound, known as T405, can move closer to becoming a clinical treatment, researchers will need to improve its pharmacological potency with a preclinical animal model of this disease.

It’s still considered an emerging disease. There are now more NTM than tuberculosis cases in the United States. And this is the most virulent of all of them.”

Gyanu Lamichhane, Associate Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

“People die of this in our hospitals each week,” said Craig Townsend, a professor of chemistry who served as a principal investigator on the study along with Gyanu Lamichhane, an associate professor of medicine. “The data we have is quite promising.”

Despite years of urgent calls for more research to comprehend the germs and to explore possible remedies, researchers have been wary of experimenting with the most dangerous member of its Non-Tuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM) family.

The compound T405 has shown a”superior potency against M. abscessus” over two commonly used antibiotics, the paper states. When combined with an existing medication called avibactam, T405 also demonstrated an ability to protect against the bacteria from developing resistance.

People with depressed immune systems and lung diseases are also at risk of developing an infection that is most often found in cystic fibrosis patients. Transmission is not well understood, but the bacteria are found in soil, dust and water.

Current therapeutic guidelines for the disease require 12 to 18 months of multidrug therapy that have resulted in cure rates between 30-50 percent, underscoring the”need for new antibiotics with improved action,” the paper states.