Antibiotic resistance is a major public health problem. Few new molecules are in development, but a new antibiotic called clovibactin brings hope.
This drug, isolated from bacteria that haven't previously been studied, seems to be capable of combating multidrug-resistant "superbugs" thanks to unusual mechanisms of action.
The drug was discovered and has been studied by scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the University of Bonn in Germany, the German Center for Infection Research, Northeastern University in Boston, and NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Their research was published in Cell.
"Since clovibactin was isolated from bacteria that could not be grown before, pathogenic bacteria have not seen such an antibiotic before and had no time to develop resistance," said Markus Weingarth, MD, PhD, researcher in Utrecht University's chemistry department, in a press release.
Microbial "Dark Matter"
Researchers isolated clovibactin from sandy soil from North Carolina and studied it using the iCHip device, which was developed in 2015. This technique allowed them to grow "bacterial dark matter," so-called unculturable bacteria, which compose a group to which 99% of bacteria belong.
This device also paved the way for the discovery of the antibiotic teixobactin in 2020. Teixobactin is effective against gram-positive bacteria and is one of the first truly new antibiotics in decades.
