Using ‘living antibiotics’ to battle AMR

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) means normally treatable infections are becoming difficult to cure with antibiotics. However, researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), Japan, may have a solution using bacteria that preys on other bacteria. Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium that feeds on Gram-negative bacteria, which include well-known, disease-causing bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella. In lab tests, the OIST team have successfully been able to manipulate B. bacteriovorus’ genes to attack its prey faster in the presence of a drug called theophylline. Manipulating the bacterium’s natural behaviour in this way could lead to potential new treatments for a variety of different infections.

Source: Phys.Org 

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology