Scientists develop effective drugs to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

In recent years, the problem of antimicrobial resistance in medicine has become increasingly serious. Bacteria from the ESKAPE group are considered particularly dangerous, causing serious and often fatal infections in hospitalised patients. Scientists at the World-Class Research Centre for Personalized Medicine are developing antimicrobial agents based on innate immunity peptides that are active against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It has been shown that when combined with other antibiotics (those to which bacteria are resistant), they can significantly increase the effectiveness of the peptides and broaden their antimicrobial spectrum. The activity of such combination drugs was tested against bacteria from patients with severe wound infections. It was found that peptides in combination with aminoglycosides, macrolides, carbropenems and a number of antiseptics have synergistic antimicrobial effect against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and others. It is these types of bacteria that often hamper successful treatment of wound infections.

The researchers also noted that the combination drugs were also effective against mixed bacterial cultures. For example, the antimicrobial activity of the synthetic analogue of bactenecin (a natural peptide from domestic goat leukocytes) against a mixed culture of A. baumannii and K. pneumoniae increased 8-fold when combined with erythromycin, amikacin and meropenem. A synergistic antimicrobial effect of peptides combined with other antimicrobial agents was also observed against bacterial biofilms, which are known to be a major problem in the treatment of wound infections.

Based on the data obtained, the scientists conclude that combinations of natural peptides of animal origin with traditional antibiotics could become prototypes of novel treatments to combat antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.

01.09.2023