Not-So-Superbugs

Superbugs kill around 700,000 people every year, and this figure is set to increase to as much as 10,000,000 by 2050 due to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. This usually arises through random mutation, and this resistance spreads rapidly due to the ability of bacteria to share advantageous alleles through plasmids, which can be shared between even distant species. 


It is therefore unsurprising that we are developing new, more effective forms of medicine to combat this threat; a team of scientists from led by The Institute of Bio-engineering and Nanotechnology have created a polymer capable of attaching to the bacteria cell surface, entering the bacterial cell, and precipitating the cytoplasmic substances to kill the bacterium. this polymer has been found to be effective against Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Additionally, it was found that the bacteria developed no resistance to the polymer even after multiple treatments, suggesting promise for a cure to these previously incurable diseases.

I hope you found this article interesting.
By Louis Lane

Sources:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180307/New-class-of-antimicrobial-polymers-can-kill-five-hard-to-treat-multidrug-resistant-bacteria.aspx
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/080401_mrsa

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