A new strategy to combat antibiotic resistance has emerged from a study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine. Published in the journal Molecular Cell, the report reveals for the first time how bacteria evolve mutations that confer antibiotic resistance and that this process can be inhibited with FDA-approved drug edaravone.
“Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to public health. Bacteria develop resistance thanks to the appearance of new mutations in their DNA that allow bacteria to overcome the deadly effects of the antibiotic,” said corresponding author Dr. Susan M. Rosenberg, Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research and professor of molecular and human genetics, of biochemistry and molecular biology and of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor.
Traditionally, antibiotic resistance has been countered with new antibiotics. In this study, however, the researchers looked to discover and then inhibit the molecular mechanisms that induce mutations conferring antibiotic resistance.
Read more at Baylor College of Medicine
