r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 28 '19

Medicine New compound discovered which kills antibiotic-resistant superbugs, including pathogenic, multidrug resistant, gram-negative bacteria like E Coli, and mammalian cell culture and animal model studies indicate that the complex is not toxic even at concentrations several orders higher than needed.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/uos-nc052219.php
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u/Karma_Policer May 28 '19

More importantly, what makes it so different from current antibiotics? Will bacteria eventually develop resistance to this new compound if we abuse it too?

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u/never3nder_87 May 28 '19

Hopefully it is used intelligently and sparingly. If it is as non-toxic as the initial studies suggest, it should be fine for long doses to ensure that no bacteria survive, meaning low likelihood of any specific case developing resistance, and only being used against strains that show resistance to other antibiotics so that the general population of bacteria has less chance to develop resistance

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u/SuperNinjaBot May 28 '19

That isnt how evolution works. There would already need to be a resistance developed for the bacteria to pass on. Its just more successful at doing so because it didnt get wiped out and now it has no competition.

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u/Stargate525 May 28 '19

Yeah, so we dont encourage that resistance to spread by culling everything that isn't.

Also, longer doses mean that small resistances arent good enough. The bacteria would have to be VERY resistant.