- Researchers say an 80-year-old abandoned antibiotic may be a useful treatment against drug-resistant bacteria.
- The development of the antibiotic nourseothricin was halted decades ago due to potential toxicity to kidneys.
- However, researchers say medical advances may now make it possible to use the drug.
Researchers say an antibiotic discovered during World War II could now be used as an alternative for difficult-to-treat drug-resistant bacterial infections.
In a study published today in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers led by Dr. James Kirby, a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, reports that the antibiotic nourseothricin may now provide much-needed protection against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.
Kirby’s team said in a statement that nourseothricin is a natural product made by a soil fungus containing multiple forms of a complex molecule called streptothricin.
Scientists discovered nourseothricin in the 1940s and had high hopes it could be a powerful agent against gram-negative bacteria, which
However, the development of nourseothricin was halted once researchers discovered it was toxic to kidneys.
Now, the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections has prompted a search for new antibiotics, leading Kirby’s team to take another look at nourseothricin.
Medical advances the past 80 years have changed the antibiotic’s potential.
The researchers said early studies of nourseothricin suffered from incomplete purification of the streptothricins. Recently, scientists say they have shown that multiple forms have different toxicities with one, streptothricin-F, significantly less toxic, while remaining highly active against contemporary multidrug-resistant pathogens.
In their current study, the research team characterized the antibacterial action, renal toxicity, and mechanism of action of highly purified forms of two different…
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