A newly developed class of antibiotics could help turn the tide against an insect that can kill up to six in 10 people it infects.
Zosurabalpin works by killing a strain of bacteria known as CRAB that has become resistant to other types of drugs – a growing threat called antimicrobial resistance.
So-called 'superbugs' kill more than 1 million people worldwide every year, with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning the planet is heading towards a 'post-antibiotic' era.
Its spread risks turning back the medical clock, making regular infections and routine surgeries a life-threatening prospect.
However, Zosurabalpin, made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, has been shown to destroy CRAB, which doctors have warned is epidemic in UK hospitals.
A drug called Zosurabalpin was found to be effective against a drug-resistant form of the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii, which resemble short rods (image), by destroying a protective membrane that prevents many other drugs from working
Laboratory tests showed that the drug killed highly drug-resistant strains of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in mice.
CRAB has been classified by the WHO as a 'priority 1 critical' pathogen in terms of urgent need for new treatments.
Mortality estimates for invasive CRAB infections range from 40 to 60 percent.
Zosurabalpin works by disrupting the bacteria's ability to maintain its protective membrane made of a substance called lipopolysaccharide, killing it.
If the results are repeated in humans, Zosurabalpin could become the first new antibiotic developed since 1968 to treat CRAB-like infections.
Acinetobacter baumannii belongs to a class of bacteria called Gram-negative bacteria, which are difficult to kill because their outer membrane prevents most antibiotics from working.
Scientists also hope that by uncovering the mechanism of how Zosurabalpin works, even more new drugs for superbugs can be developed.
Dr. Michael Lobritz, head of infectious diseases and early development at Roche, said the threat of superbugs should not be underestimated.
“Antimicrobial resistance has been called a 'silent pandemic' and is expected to claim more lives over the next 30 years than the number currently claimed by cancer,” he said.
Dr. Andrew Edwards, senior lecturer in molecular microbiology at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the research, welcomed the results.
“CRAB is a major cause of infection in hospitals, especially in people on ventilators,” he said The guard.
'Unfortunately, developing new treatments against this bacterium has been a huge challenge, as it is very adept at preventing antibiotics from getting past the outer cell layer.
'That's why this work is really exciting and gives confidence that the approach used to find new antibiotics can pay off.'
Scientists recently published the results of their experiments with Zosurabalpin in the journal Nature.
A showed that the drug reduced the amount of bacteria in mice with CRAB-induced pneumonia, and prevented the death of rodents with CRAB-related sepsis.
Another discovered exactly how Zosurabalpin worked against CRAB.
Although promising, the results have yet to be replicated in human trials, a stage at which many drugs fail in the development cycle.
A landmark study published in January 2022 found that antibiotic-resistant infections directly killed 1.2 million people in 2019.
Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Oxford estimate that drug-resistant CRAB alone was responsible for between 50,000 and 100,000 of these deaths.
This graph shows the combined direct and associated deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria by global region, measured in the new study. Africa and South Asia had the highest number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, but Western European countries such as Britain still recorded significantly high fatalities
It is estimated that the bug kills 700 people every year in the US.
There are no figures on the number of deaths from CRAB in Britain, but researchers have previously warned that the bug is 'endemic' in the country's hospitals.
Bacteria can become resistant to medications if people take the wrong dose of antibiotics or if they are given out unnecessarily.
It comes as MPs call for a 'mothballed' Covid megalab currently for sale on Rightmove to be used as a research facility to develop new drugs to tackle the threat of superbugs.
The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in Leamington Spa opened in June 2021 and was Britain's first Covid testing mega-lab, processing 8.5 million swabs during the pandemic.
Officials said the £1.1 billion laboratory would 'play an indispensable role' in responding to future disease threats, but it was suddenly closed just 18 months later and appeared on the property's website in November.
A cross-party group of MPs has now called on the government to make use of this the ability to examine microscopic viruses called phages that seek out and destroy bacteria.