Scientists found a new
class of antibiotics while they were studying soil microbes.
They say these antibiotics
could kill deadly superbugs without triggering resistance.
Their discovery prompts
them to believe there’s “a reservoir of antibiotics in the environment we
haven’t accessed yet,” said Sean Brady, an associate professor at Rockefeller
University in New York, who led the study.
The published their
findings in the journal Nature Microbiology, writing that these antibiotics
kill superbugs including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a
potentially deadly infection that is resistant to several antibiotics.
A team led by Brady
discovered the new class of antibiotics, called malacidins, while cloning and
sequencing DNA from microorganisms in soil samples contributed by people across
the United States, The Washington Post reported.
They were looking for
microorganisms with a known gene that acts as an “on/off” switch and makes it
more difficult for microbes to develop antibiotic resistance, per the Post.
