WHO has a Cunning Plan to speed antibiotic development

“The scientific community has developed and approved new antibiotics in recent years. This is good, but unfortunately not sufficient to catch up with evolving drug-resistance bacteria, especially against those of greatest concern. We need a reliable pipeline with new antibacterial agents that are innovative, affordable, accessible to all those who need them.”

Dr Yvan Hutin, Director of Antimicrobial Resistance at WHO

Says it all really, everything that we’ve been banging on about here for the last six years and more. The problem is simple, but deadly. Although more than 90 new antibiotics are now in development, very of few of them target the really high-priority organisms that worry health care professionals: and even fewer of these are really innovative (in the way that penicillin was in its day for example) And so the World Health Organization, that most noble of entities has come up with a Cunning Plan to really get things moving. They gave divided it into three Target Product Profiles:

-our old friends the multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria such as enterobacteriales, Acinobacter baumanii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, who’ve shown up in so many old LSS blogs we won’t bother to list them.

–Gram positives like Enterococcus faecium. We have wondered why the gram negatives have been getting all the attention, and seeing no Darwinian reason why the gram positives should not evolve resistance too, are extremely glad someone is at last paying attention to them.

-their third trope for action is bacterial meningitis, caused by organisms such as Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae among others. Particularly welcome, for of those who incur such dreadful infections, one out of six will die and of the survivors, about one in five will be left with some long term disimpairment.

Hats off to Dr Hutin in particular and the World Health Organization in general. The World Health Organization is often treated as a mere federation of its member states, but in practice it is something larger and more coherent than the sum of its parts. Individual nations see only their own budgets, their own pathogens, their own political cycles; the WHO sees the whole epidemiological chessboard. Its strength lies in that cooperative vantage point — the ability to gather data from Lagos and Lima, to convene experts from Seoul and Stockholm, and to turn a hundred local anxieties into a single, rational blueprint for global action. In a field as fragmented and under‑powered as antibiotic development, that kind of coordination isn’t bureaucracy; it’s civilisation defending itself. There’s your glass-raiser for Friday Night Cocktails, gentle readers.

WHO releases new target product profiles for urgently needed antibiotics

#antibiotics #penicillin #world health organisation #epidemiology #microbiology #health #medicine

When Bacteria Explode: a new clue in the old antibiotic arms race

Bacteria are relentlessly evolving resistance to our attacks with antibiotics and phages — but how? If we understood their tricks a little better, we might still have a chance of avoiding the lethal pandemics of antibiotic‑resistant organisms otherwise waiting in the wings. A new paper from researchers at the John Innes Centre[1] has now shed light on at least one way that whole populations of bacteria may be secretly defending themselves from our ministrations.

The team found that the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus has an extraordinary switch mechanism that can cause it to “explode” under certain conditions. When it does, it releases tiny virus‑like particles containing fragments of its own DNA. Pertinent to our quest, gentle reader, is that some of this DNA may include instructions on how to resist antibiotics — or perhaps even the bacteriophages we deploy against them. The researchers also identified the components of this switch, which go by the snappy names LypABC and CdxB. They don’t yet know exactly what flips the switch, but they have their suspicions.

All of this is good news for those of us following the antibiotic‑resistance story. We now have a clearer picture of how at least one type of bacterium spreads resistance among its own members. And if we know what these switches are, we have a fighting chance of intervening to turn them off. If, as the researchers suspect, the presence of a hostile phage is indeed one of the triggers, then this is a very great step forward indeed

[1]A bacterial CARD–NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents

Emma J. Banks, Pavol Bárdy, Ngat T. Tran, Phuong M. Nguyen, Boris Stojilković, Kevin Gozzi, Abbas Maqbool & Tung B. K. Le Nature Microbiology (2026)C

[2]John Innes Centre | Excellence in plant science, genetics and microbiology

#antibiotic resistance #bacteria #dna #genes #virus #bacteriophage #health #medicine

New antibiotic for gonorrhoea: more good news for antibiotic resistance fans everywhere

Once more we feel that things are moving in our direction. And just in time for Christmas too! Thanks to a story by the redoubtable Kat Lay of the Guardian, we bring you news of not one, but two new antibiotics, gentle readers. Both Zoliflodacin and Gepotidacin have passed major trials and have been approved this very month by the US Food and Drug Administration. Always a major step in their progress to world-wide use.[1]

We will keep our bit short today. Kat’s excellent story is a lucid and succinct presentation of all you need to know-infection rates, strains, statistics and the marvellous groups of educated, open minded people who have worked so hard to get humanity to this stage. Suffice it to say you might wish to learn more about Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) who seem to be just the sort of people we have been hoping to have around in this crisis (thanks for that, Kat) So, go on-click.

Hardened fans of LSS and the antibiotics resistance community in general will be aware of our earlier thoughts on this aspect of the problem(LSS 19 2 24; 12 9 24) It is a genuine pleasure to see advances being made, and not just in STDs, after more than ten years of campaigning. The antibiotics crisis is not over yet; but compared with where we were about 2015, this feels better. So, although we are not going to let up, enough time has been bought to devote a little of it to another of our bêtes noires: the intractable mystery of mental illness and its causes. But this time, we think there’s hope there too. Don’t miss our next amazing blog.

[1https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/dec/16/health-antibiotic-resistance-drugs-superbugs-sexually-transmitted-gonorrhoea

[2]https://gardp.org/

#antibiotic resistance #microbiology #health #medicine #bacteria #STD #GARDP

Antibiotic Resistance Rising: Part one of our Depressing Diptych for November

Five years of writing this blog, ten years of campaigning. But antibiotic resistance is still on the rise as this article by the indefatigable Hannah Devlin of the Guardian makes all too clear.[1] According to the UK Health Security Agency deaths due to antibiotic resistance went up by 17% in England in 2024 alone.[2] And England is not an outlier: investigations by our Fact Checking Department , Research Unit and and Data Team all showed comparable metrics for other G7 counties(sorry, no time to look wider!)

As might be expected from a fine journalist who has covered this topic so extensively, Hannah’s article is a cornucopia of useful statistics, data points and links. As for the England’s particular glitch, she offers this intriguing possible cause: an increase in private prescriptions following cuts to antibiotic prescriptions within the NHS. Time will tell on that one.

But all too depressingly believable in any case. In pubs, in shops in cafes, we hear the same dreary old reprise: “I’ve got flu and that (unprintable) (unprintable) of a Doctor wouldn’t give me an antibiotic!” An utter misunderstanding of causes, effects and consequence which leads to an ever-rising demand for antibiotics and consequently, an ever-rising rate of resistance mutations in the target organisms. Combine that with the disgraceful misuse of antibiotics in the farming industry, in order to produce megatons of unnecessary meat, and you can imagine a world in ten or twenty years’ time where there are no antibiotics as such at all. It’s not the antibiotics themselves, it’s not the bacteria, its the fact that so many people think they can ignore the findings of science -until it’s too late. It’s a theme we’ll return to in the next part of our Depressing Diptych for this November. Stay on line, it’s coming up.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/13/deaths-linked-to-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-rose-17-in-england-in-2024

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency

#microbial antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #prescriptions #NHS #farming

Nature Briefing on a brand new antibiotic(or was it there all along?)

Today, gentle readers, we bring you really good news in our joint quest to finally overcome the problem of antibiotic resistant micro organisms. And it comes of course from Nature Briefing, that indispensable source of all good science news and reporting. Let’s start with their summary Antibiotic was hiding in plain sight, and then briefly run through all the implications

Scientists have discovered a powerful antibiotic while studying the process through which a soil bacterium naturally produces a well-known drug. The compound — called premethylenomycin C lactone — is more than 100 times more active against bacteria than the final product, antibiotic methylenomycin A, which was first identified in 1965. Tiny doses of the surprise discovery killed strains of bacteria known to cause hard-to-treat infections.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Journal of the American Chemical Society paper

Okay, so wanted the implications? Firstly for us at LSS. Great reassurance to see progress in our core area of real, old-skool antibiotics. Now, if these make a comeback, can they please be used sparingly, and in conjunction with therapies like vaccines and bacteriophages, so we are not in this whole mess again around the year 2065? Secondly, the new compound premethylenomycin C , though only a precursor is a hundred times more powerful than methylenomycin A. As Dr Challis, one of the co-authors of the work observes, that’s a turn up for the evolutionary book if ever there was one. But for us the Big One is how many years of painstaking research this all took, how many tiny detailed steps in the synthetic chain had to be weeded out. They started back in 2006 when one George W Bush was still President of the United States and everyone thought that Katy Perry was the way of the future. Blue sky abstract research; done as much out of intellectual curiosity as anything else. Which is odd. Because every so often one of our Right Leaning media outlets comes up with tropes such as WOI ARE VE WYESTIN ORL DIS TEXPAYUHS MUNNI ONNER RESURTCH WOT DON’T DO NUFFINK? SPEN IT ON SUMFIN USEFUL GUVNOR, INNIT! Which raises a deep question; how do you measure the value of research like premethylenomycin ? The costs are small but substantial enough to cash-strapped Universities. But the pay-off is almost infinite. That one we will leave to you, faithful readers of our words.

[1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03595-3?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=f5bcecac99-

#antibiotics #biochemistry #microbio;ogy #medicine #health #antibiotic resistance

The economic costs of antibiotic resistance

Down the years we’ve tended to cover the health risks of antibiotic resistance , and the various scientific and medical developments in the field. We haven’t written so much on the economic risks. And frankly, that’s been a blind spot.

Now a very clear sighted article by Anna Bawden of the Guardian[1] makes those potential costs very clear indeed. Drawing on report from the prestigious Centre for Global Development [2] Anna serves up some chilling facts Get this:

A UK government-funded study shows that without concerted action, increased rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could lead to global annual GDP losses of $1.7tn over the next quarter of a century.

Breaking it down by countries:

The research calculated the economic and health burden of antibiotic resistance for 122 countries and forecast that in that in this most pessimistic scenario, by 2050, GDP losses in China could reach just under $722bn a year, the US $295.7bn, the EU $187bn, Japan $65.7bn and the UK $58.6bn.

That alone should give the thoughtful 5% of us pause for thought. But it’s Anna’s background which makes this a great article. For it comes at a time when countries like the USA and the UK are busily cutting their overseas aid budgets. Which is shows a worrying lack of self interest on their parts. For one thing, antibiotic resistance will not be confined to poorer countries: but it is much more likely to develop in them. Secondly, being at the forefront of pioneering science can spin off the most amazing business and technological opportunities for the more astute kind of entrepreneur. And thirdly, and most acutely for their voter base: if the health system in those poor contries collapses, guess where their populations will pitch up? “Stands ter reason,dunnit, mate?” as our old friend Dave Watford is fond of stating. Thanks, Dave- you’ve got it right this time.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/20/superbugs-could-kill-millions-more-and-cost-2tn-a-year-by-2050-models-show

[2]https://www.cgdev.org/media/forecasting-fallout-amr-economic-impacts-antimicrobial-resistance-humans

#antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #economics

Closing the Fleming Fund-a bad day for antibiotics

One of the few certain things in life, apart from death and taxes, is to go to the bar of the Dog and Duck and there eavesdrop on opinions on the question of the UK Foreign Aid budget. “We got omeless on ahr streets, an dere sendin billions abrawd!” “We’re taxed to the ilt, an’ they’re givin it away!” are some of the politer opinions we dare repeat here. How ironic for them to see a hated Labour Government make the very cuts they so long for. But our pleasure is short lived..

For the Government seems ready to abolish The Fleming Fund. [1] A body set up in 2015 and named after the the illustrious pioneer of penicillin, the fund states its purpose as a

UK aid programme supporting up to 25 countries across Africa and Asia to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The Fund is managed by the Department of Health and Social Care and invests in strengthening surveillance systems through a portfolio of country and regional grants, global projects and fellowship schemes.

But-what goes around comes around, as the old saying has it. Antibiotic resistant superorganisms know no national boundaries. If they evolve in the third world, they will be here soon. This decision appears to be very short sighted.

We sympathise with a government caught in a hard place between the obdurate creed that says taxes must never rise, and the urgent need for spending to achieve at least a minimal defence capacity. Perhaps the real problem is not economic, or biological, but philosophical. For if the world is divided into competing nation states, what choice does each government have but to look after its own immediate interests? And if nations arm, each in mutual fear of its neighbours, what hope for spending on international co-operative efforts like the Fleming Fund? Perhaps the trick for LSS and its readers is not to develop more antibiotics, but to persuade millions of the sorts of people who go to the Dog and Duck to realise this simple truth.

_{thanks to J Read}

[1]https://bsac.org.uk/closure-of-the-fleming-fund-risks-undermining-uk-leadership-on-amr/

[2]https://www.flemingfund.org/about-us/

#fleming fund #overseas aid #antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #microorganisims

Is that an Antibiotic in the Azaleas?

We started out as an antibiotics blogs, and we’ll always defer to it when a good story comes up. So don’t be surprised as we offer you a really good story, which we found in Nature Briefing, that inestimable source of the very best stories on science and all its ramifications. Scientists unearth new anitbiotic-literally

Researchers searching far and wide for new antibiotic molecules have discovered one in their own backyard. The new molecule — found in soil samples collected from a lab technician’s garden — targets a broad range of disease-causing bacteria and doesn’t appear to be toxic to human cells. From the soil samples, the team spotted a lasso-shaped molecule they named lariocidin, which is produced by Paenibacillus bacteria. Lariocidin attaches to structures called ribosomes in bacteria, which disrupts their protein production. The molecule slowed the growth of a range of common bacterial pathogens, including many multidrug-resistant strains.Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature paper

We know, gentle readers that we can occasionally overdo the bad news a tad on these pages. Today we’re glad to tip the balance back a little the other way.

If you want to receive the very latest on science and cutting edge technology, you won’t do beetr than sign up to Nature Briefing. We don’t know of anything as good as this which is still absolutely free. What’s more they have some sub briefing sites on more specialist areas if your want to keep up with a particular area why not visit these sites and see for yourself?

briefing@nature.co

Nature Briefing: Careers — insights, advice and award-winning journalism to help you optimize your working life
Nature Briefing: Microbiology — the most abundant living entities on our planet – microorganisms – and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems
Nature Briefing: Anthropocene — climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering
Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics — 100% written by humans, of course
Nature Briefing: Cancer — a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind
Nature Briefing: Translational Research — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma
#antibiotic resistance #bacteria #microorganisms #medicine #health #research

Antimicrobial resistance: its not just bacteria Plus: see if you can spot the hidden message in this blog

Stop the press! Urgent! Even though it’s Thursday afternoon and we’ve done our blog for the day, a new story is bursting to be told. Because while leafing through the Interweb to see if we had been included in any top secret message groups, we came across a story by the assiduous Clara Harter of the Los Angeles Times: Deadly Drug Resistant fungus CDC calls urgent threat is spreading in hospitals [1] We won’t steal Clara’s thunder. But basically, it’s called Candida auris, it spreads rapidly in healthcare facilities. and it tends to target the sick and the old.

Wanting to know more , we went to the site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[2] whose purpose, as every schoolchild knows is goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease injury and disability both in the USA and throughout the world[3](fungi don’t stop at national borders, you see) We found their web page to be concise, easy to access and extremely helpful. How lucky Americans are, to have such a body that anticipates threats to public safety, co-ordinates the efforts of medical facilities and health agencies and keeps the public informed, free of charge!

Well until recently they were, Because we have learned that the CDCs are yet another target in the cross hairs of Mr Musk and his enthusiastic band of young cost cutters. [4] According to the independent Medical Economics:

The cuts include 1,300 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff — about 10% of its workforce — and all first-year officers in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) — a disease response unit.

We are ignorant of Mr Musk’s motives; he may be a man of profound compassion and acute foresight. His economic learning may be profound; we cannot say. But if the fungus spreads, and if its economic cost is as great as its human one, we will know that it could have been prevented.

[1]https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-03-27/deadly-drug-resistant-fungus-cdc-calls-urgent-threat-is-spreading-in-hospitals

[2]https://www.cdc.gov/candidiasis/antimicrobial-resistance/index.html#:~:text=At%20a%20glance%201%20Antimicrobial%20resistance%20happens%20when,common%20type

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_federal_agencies_targeted_by_DOGE

[4]https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/elon-musk-s-doge-and-its-impact-on-federal-health-agencies-explained

#DOGE #CDC #fungus #antimicrobial resistance #public health #disease prevention #medicine

Antibiotic Resistance: predicting it before it happens

In war, Intelligence is just about the most vital thing you can have. You know, predicting the enemy’s next move before he makes it. How useful it would be to know which bacteria will show resistance to our next antibiotic, where, how , and when! That’s why some new work from Dr Kalen Hall and team of Tulane University, reported on Phys.org is so exciting [1]

They have identified a genetic signature in the bacteria Pseudomona aeruginosa which predicts the likelihood of developing genetic changes which facilitate resistance to antibiotics. Ingeniously, they studied the DNA mismatch repair pathway, which spurs rapid mutations in the genome. As every schoolchild knows, the more mutations you throw up, the more likely it is that one will give you resistance to antibiotics.

But for LSS homies there’s a deeper learning point. The team took their cue from similar research being carried out in the field of cancer treatment. The idea was to use it to predict carcinogenic mutations-but look what these antibiotic folk have done with it! Science breeds science. Knowledge and learning breeds more knowledge and learning. To our readers in the United States we would observe that this is a lesson you used to know well. Why have you started to forget?

[1]https://phys.org/news/2025-01-genetic-fingerprint-bacteria-drug-resistance.html

#microbiology #dna #antibiotic resistance #cancer #bacteria