For the first time in 50 years, they have succeeded in creating an antibiotic capable of killing drug-resistant bacteria.

Antibiotics are one of the most important drugs ever discovered, marking a turning point in the history of disease. But nowadays, Bacteria have become resistant to many current drugs due to frequent or inappropriate use of them.

This antibiotic resistance has evolved stronger bacteria, incapable of being treated by the most powerful antibiotics currently in existence, opening a window into infections that can prove fatal, since there is no way to treat them.

However, after 50 years, scientists say they have developed a new type of antibiotic to treat a bacteria that is resistant to most current antibiotics and is killing large numbers of people.

Bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), classified as a “priority 1” pathogen by the World Health Organization , can kill up to 60% of those infected according to the United States National Institute of Health, and is responsible for about 20% of infections in places such as hospitals, nursing homes or other similar healthcare environments.

It commonly causes infections of the urinary tract, respiratory tract, and blood, which can lead to sepsis, clinical syndrome of life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection . In the United States, the bacteria caused about 8,500 infections in hospitalized patients and 700 deaths in 2017, according to the most recent CDC data.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is one of the top ten threats to global health. A study (2022) published in The Lancet revealed that in 2019, More than 1.3 million people have died worldwide as a direct result of infections caused by antibiotic resistance . This equates to 3,500 deaths per day, a figure that could increase in 2050.

CRAB is difficult to eliminate because it has a double layer of cell wall that protects bacteria. Antibiotics generally work by breaking down the cell wall surrounding infectious bacteria to reach the vital machinery inside. If it is double, this means that the antibiotics must pass through both layers to reach the vital machinery inside the bacteria in order to kill them and treat the infection, this is called “Gram negative” .

In addition to being Gram negative, it is resistant to penicillin antibiotics, called carbapenems, making it almost invincible. For over 50 years The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved a new class of antibiotics to treat this bacteria. according to a review study published Wednesday in the magazine Nature.

However, researchers from Harvard University and Swiss healthcare company Hoffmann-La Rocheclaim to have created a new antibiotic, called zosurabalpine, capable of effectively killing Acinetobacter baumannii.

Zosurabalpin is a new class of antibiotics that works by blocking a bacterial molecule called lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is responsible for creating the outer membrane that protects the CRAB. Without the ability to transport LPS, the bacteria die.

“This new class of antibiotics stops bacteria from creating their outer membrane, which gives them structure and helps them survive in harsh environments and cause infections,” Kenneth Bradley, global head of infectious disease discovery at Switzerland-based Roche, told Fox News Digital via email.

Zosurabalpine inhibits the growth of Acinetobacter baumannii by preventing the movement of LPS to the outer membrane, where they are necessary to maintain membrane integrity. This causes molecules to build up inside the bacterial cell. The levels present in the cell become so toxic that the cell itself dies.

Researchers tested zosurabalpine on more than 100 CRAB samples from patients suffering from the infection. The research team found that zosurabalpin could kill all of these bacterial strains. It could also kill bacteria in the blood of CRAB-infected mice, preventing them from developing sepsis.

“The new molecule overcomes existing drug resistance mechanisms that currently available antibiotics fail to address,” Bradley said.

“This is the first time we have found something that works in this way, making it unique in its chemical composition and mechanism of action,” said Dr. Michael Lobritz, global head of infectious diseases at Roche Pharma. Research and Early Development in Basel. Switzerland, which developed the new drug.

However, he stressed that this molecule alone would not resolve the threat of antibiotic resistance and that effective treatments were still lacking. . More research is needed and zosurabalpine is still a long way from clinical use, but it is an extremely promising development, Dr. César de la Fuente, presidential assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told CNN , who did not participate in the study.

Zosurabalpin is currently in phase 1 clinical trials for use in patients infected with CRAB. These first human tests will help the company developing the drug, Roche, determine the side effects of the drugs, as well as their possible toxicity.

The discovery of zosurabalpin, which Bradley calls a “scientific breakthrough,” will help researchers learn more about how bacterial membranes are constructed, knowledge that could enable new drugs to kill bacteria.