Soil bug compound foils antibiotic resistance; could help prolong drugs’ use

TORONTO – A soil sample from Nova Scotia has yielded a compound that could help fight antibiotic resistance.

Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton have discovered a fungus that produces a chemical which overrides the antibiotic resistance powers the dangerous NDM-1 gene gives to bacteria.

They liken the compound to an adjuvant, a chemical that enhances the power of vaccines.

Biochemistry professor Gerry Wright and his team have been looking in soil samples from around the country for bacteria and fungi that produce chemicals that might inhibit antibiotic resistance.

This early finding is published in this week’s issue of the scientific journal Nature.

The McMaster team found the compound worked to resensitize resistant bacteria that contain the NDM-1 gene, and even cleared a resistant infection from a mouse.

Wright says the compound, called aspergillomarasmime A or AMA, interfers with the NDM-1 gene’s source of zinc. The gene needs zinc to work.

Much testing remains to be done to see if this compound could be used safely and successfully in people. But the hope is it could be taken in combination with antibiotics to help prolong the lifespans of these critical infection fighting drugs.

The rise of antibiotic resistance and the paucity of new antibiotics in the production pipeline have created fears that the world could be facing a future in which antibiotics no longer work.