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

Two good news blogs:#1 AI designer phages against antibiotic resistance

Its not often we bring you unabashed good news, gentle readers. Nor moreover, blow our own trumpet. But the following from Nature Briefing AI Helps design E. coli killing viruses not only unites so many of the themes we push here-(AI molecular design, multidisciplinary studies, bacteriophages etc etc)-that we think that the advance it represents it makes this one of our more significant blogs in months.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have designed novel viruses capable of killing strains of Escherichia coli. The team used the DNA of a simple bacteriophage called ΦX174 to guide AI models to generate viral genomes with the specific function of infecting antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli. Researchers used the model’s suggested sequences to select 302 viable phages. When put to the test, 16 of these phages could infect E. coli, and combinations of them could kill three strains of the bacterium, a feat the original ΦX174 couldn’t pull off.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)

its certainly worth clicking on the Nature article and even the Preprint, which has a surprisingly well written summary

Old hands to this blog will recall our long standing worries about this organism. Normally Escherichia coli (named after the ingenious Dr Theodor Escherich) is a fine upstanding member of the microbiological community, being common in nature and a doyenne of experimental departments in microbiological schools. But certain strains of it are developing a profound resistance to our best antibiotics including piperacillin/tazobactam combinations. Which could have made it a very False Friend indeed. But now it seems that Dr King and his team have got ahead of the game.

Note the careful language, full admissions that peer review awaits, and generally understated claims that mark the true signs of trustworthy scholarship. How different from some situations where leaders of great nations go before the cameras and make huge unsubstantiated claims about phenomena of which they have no certain knowledge, But when you choose to believe only what you want to believe, fate has a nasty way of catching up eventually. Wait for the next blog and we’ll tell you more .

#E.coli #bacteriophages #AI #designer biochemistry #antibiotic resistance #microbiology #medicine #health

If you want to know the truth about cancer, ask Liz O’Riordan

Because she’s seen it from both sides, is why. First she was a doctor, who like, worked in the field? And then because, she got it herself, right? Became a patient, and experienced all the heart stopping, roller coasting, will-I -won’t-I? chain of emotions that all her own patients did. If those aren’t qualifications enough, gentle readers, we don’t know what are. And-she has one other which seals the deal as far as we’re concerned. Read on, and you will learn what that is.

We came across Dr O’Riordan in the course of listening to a series called Marianna in Conspiracyland on BBC Radio 4 [1] Not having an especially large legal department we must be careful what we say. But the programme details the activities of the types of people who disparage reason-based science and evidence-based medicine. And instead offer a dubious range of alternative theories, explanations and prescriptions to people who are scared out of their wits by a cancer diagnosis. In the nicest possible way, the programme tried to explain the consequences of choosing these paths of treatment, And Dr O’Riordan was one of the speakers they called in their support. A little bit like the prosecution in a criminal case calling an expert witness in DNA or drugs, as t’were.

Because since her own diagnosis and treatment, Dr O’Riordan has spent her days ceaselessly writing, speaking, making media appearances, all to one end. Refuting fallacies, identifying illogicalities, reasoning with the unreasonable. In books like The Cancer Roadmap [2] she tries to explain the science behind why cancers develop and grow, what the best treatments are, and why so-called “alternative systems” don’t seem to be up to much. In this undertaking she joins a great tradition of rationalists and sceptics starting with Lucian of Samosata,[3] and stretching all the way through to people like Peter Medawar, Carl Sagan and Dr Ben Goldacre.

But she goes one step further. Because she never condemns or sneers at anyone. Instead she tries to ask why people turn from rational medicine to alternatives and faith. In other words she deploys human qualities of empathy and compassion. And we could all learn from that. For years on this blog we have bemoaned the growth of fake information, conspiracies and general rubbish which grows on the interweb like the digital equivalent of a cancer. Not just in cancer theory; in matters like global warming, politics and economics. Hasn’t done much good. Somehow, the easy, comforting answer outpaces the complicated rational one each time, and by ratios of thousands. We are in danger of becoming the last generation of enlightened, rational thinkers, perhaps for thousands of years. Time to listen to Liz and her methods. Soon.

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mssm

[2]https://liz.oriordan.co.uk/author/

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

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goldacre

#cancer #medicine #alternative medicine #rational #empirical #science #health

Brand New Antibiotic- a last hurrah for Harvard University?

Today we are brining you news of one of the best stories we’ve covered in many a long year of campaigning. Today Hofman-La Roche have announced late stage trials of a brand new antibiotic called Zosurabalpin. If all goes well it could be ready for clinical practice very soon. [1] We’ve been following this for a while now (LSS 1 4 24; The Conversation 5 1 24)[3] : it’s extraordinarily gratifying to see the long process so near to fruition.

There’s much to be excited about at a pure scientific level. Zosuralpin is designed to go after the particularly deadly bacterium Acinobacter baumannii, which can kill up to 50% of its victims. It’s one of those gram negative ones with a double cell wall. Zosurabalpin tackles this in a new way, specifically targeting lipopolysaccharides which the organism uses to maintain the integrity of those walls. For the first time since we entered the world of antibiotics, a gram negative bacteria, the ones which used to really concern the great Professor Garner and the other founders hasa been cornered. But that’s not our main learning point today.

Because Hofman did not develop this alone. Like all modern research it was international and collaborative. The international partner they chose was Harvard University, the oldest in the United States Of America, and one of the best in the world. Until recently. For as astute readers will know, this institution has recently been on the end of a tremendous kicking from President Donald Trump (pictured above with some of his supporters) and other members of his government. We are not certain yet if this will end terminally for Harvard. But at the very least, the time they spend defending themselves from their barbaric assailants would be time better spent developing new antibiotics. It’s worth balancing consequences like that against the savage impulses of the unreasoned, the unlearned and the unintelligent.

[1]https://www.ineosoxford.ox.ac.uk/news/new-antibiotic-class-shows-promise-against-drug-resistant-bacteria

[2]https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/health/new-antibiotic-could-defeat-resistant-superbug-human-test-zosurabalpin/

[3]https://theconversation.com/new-antibiotic-zosurabalpin-shows-promise-against-drug-resistant-bacteria-an-expert-explains-how-it-works-220564

#antibiotic resistance #hofman La roche #zosurabalpin #gram negative #medicine #healh #harvard #donald trump #harvard

Professor Devi Sridhar: a masterclass in the antibiotics crisis

If antibiotics stop working it will be the end of modern medicine as we know it. That is the essence of this article by the redoubtable Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University. We’ve channelled her before on this blog (LSS 24 8 24; 26 1023). UK readers will recall her many appearances on TV during the COVID 19 pandemic. Her cool, calm reason was a welcome antidote to the wild hysteria, baseless conspiracy mongering and shameful ignorance of that epoch.

Her article is a reprise of the main points we and other campaigners have been making for years. Over-prescription; lack of research; widespread public ignorance. The tireless Professor Sally Davies is name-checked. Of course: for she has done so much to proclaim this pressing danger. But the real problem for Devi is widespread abuse of antibiotics in farming industries. To produce short term higher yields in livestock such as cattle and pigs. Leading us to eat more meat, which in turn gives us obesity, go on diets that fail, high cholesterol, heart attacks., go on more failed diets…….our fingers fail on the keyboard in sheer despair.

So let’s take one key learning point from Devi’s razor sharp mind, because maybe we haven’t emphasised it enough here down the years. The real problem is that new classes of antibiotics are needed :

Developing similar versions to existing antibiotics isn’t enough because they won’t be as effective against pathogens that have developed resistance: we need totally new classes of drugs. And a recent World Health Organization report noted that since 2017, while 13 new antibiotics have obtained authorisation, only two represent a new chemical class.

Here is the nub of the problem. It wont get any easier, because the best research teams are multinational, and international co-operation is breaking down rapidly. Things like phages and AI may help. Serendipitous searching in nature, in places like gardens or the jaws of Komodo dragons {LSS passim)may could also be marginally helpful. But in the last analysis, disputes about who imports which computer circuit from whom distract attention from the real question. A woman dying from childbirth needs an antibiotic, not a smartphone to photograph it.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/02/antibiotics-stop-working-prescription-gp-animal-farming

#antibiotic resistance #medicine #science #health #bacteriophage #komodo dragon

Recycling the way to new antibiotics

If there was one thing that has always been too much for us, it is trying to understand the fiendish complexity of the immune system. At school, at our various universities, trying again during the COVID pandemic…..we have never really got past T and B. So when the BBC announced this morning that a whole new part of it had been discovered,[1][2] you might have expected us to hold our collective heads in our hands and groan.

Far from it, gentle reader. For the new discovery has opened the possibility of a whole new class of antibiotics sitting right there in every cell of the body. An astute group of scientists led by Professor Yifal Herbl at Israel’s prestigious Weiszman Institute of Science have found that proteases, a regular part of cell function, may be able to unleash significant antibacterial function. A protease normally functions like the recycle department of your local council, chopping down old proteins and getting them ready for use. But the team found that many of the little peptides produced have strong antibiotic properties. Like the good scientists that they are, they then ran two objective tests. Do the proteases work as well as conventional antibiotics? And if you disable them, does the cell become more vulnerable to infection? To which the answers, broadly speaking, are Yes and Yes.

Once again we stress that this research, and its development into useful therapies, is still at early stages. Which we always do when we cover new points of departure like this. Yet it is, indubitably, a new departure, And it has been sitting there unnoticed until now. Something which has always tickled our fancy here, as regular readers will know. Hats off to Professor Herbl and her team. And-readers! Every tome a journalist publishes on the antibiotics crisis, why not write a very short e mail of thanks to them? They’ll love you for it.

_{with thanks to Gaynor Lynch}

A note on today’s links We have two straight news stories and a link to the Weiszman Institute, to give you staring points. However, we could not get past paywalls to the Nature articles, and we doubt you will be able to as well

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpv4jww3r4eo

[2]https://phys.org/news/2025-03-cellular-trash-reveals-immune-defense.html

[3]https://www.weizmann.ac.il/pages/

#antibiotics #proteases #immune system #peptides #microbes #bacteria #ealth #medicine

If you want to cure cancer, try paying more taxes

Cancer is the great unspoken truth running through our civilisation. Everyone knows someone who has it. Most people know someone who has died of it. The statistics suggest one in two of us will develop it in one form or another. When strangers discover that we run a science blog it isn’t long before cancer cures edge into the conversation. Everyone deep down wonders “will it happen to me?” You do, don’t you?

Which is why it gets a lot of coverage, and fresh discoveries always make the news. Following Ellyn Lapointe for the Mail [1] and the Korean owned Medical Life Sciences News,[2] we showcase the work of the brilliant Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho of the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Instead of painful drawn-out chemical treatments it looks to cure cancer by manipulating the biochemical mechanisms of the cell. Admirable, and you can read more by following the links. But for us, for today, that is not the point.

Look again. The Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Turns out it’s state owned. Paid for by taxes, Its at the centre of an ecosystem of research institutes, university departments, private companies and assorted government and non-government organisations whose collective wisdom and output is far more than the sum of its parts. It’s not so much arriving at another cure for cancer that is important for us today. It is because this cure is part of a rolling programme of research and discovery that throws up such discoveries as it goes along. Creating a thriving centre of excellence and high value jobs.

The view taken by most people in the UK is that taxes are evil things. The State is an evil parasite holding back economic growth and thereby progress. But isn’t our story today prime evidence that the opposite is the case?

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14369821/breakthrough-switch-reverses-cancer-human-body.html

[2]https://www.news-medical.net/news/20241223/Groundbreaking-technology-converts-cancer-cells-into-normal-cells.aspx?form=MG0AV3
#cancer #medical sciences #economics #research

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

Dementia and Resistance: Two Antibiotics stories from the front line, plus our take on Glasgow Rangers v Manchester United

A Cure for Dementia? What hope, what unexpected hope, there may be in antibiotic drugs! We knew that when we started this blog. We did it because we were scared of resistant bacteria. But we never anticipated this benefit: antibiotic drugs may protect us from dementia. So might antiviral drugs. So might vaccines too. Andrew Gregory of the Guardian has been following the work of Dr Ben Underwood. In a nutshell

…….One unexpected finding was an association between antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines and a reduced risk of dementia. The finding supports the hypothesis that some cases of the disease may be triggered by viral or bacterial infections. [1]

Of course, there are many questions to be answered. But for us the point is how precious these drugs are, how important it is not to waste them. Which leads us to:

War starts spike in microbial resistance Armed conflicts produce vast surges in traumatic casualties, in dirt and in squalor. All of which necessitate an understandable increase in prescription of antibiotics. Which in turn leads to rising levels of resistance. As Abdujalil Abdurasulov adduces for the BBC [2]

………war appears to have accelerated the spread of multi-resistant pathogens in Ukraine.Clinics treating war injuries have registered a sharp increase of AMR cases. More than 80% of all patients admitted to Feofaniya Hospital have infections caused by microbes which are resistant to antibiotics, according to deputy chief physician Dr Andriy Strokan.

Once started, these resistant strains of bacteria will not go away. They will spread and multiply. How ironic if many of us end up as casualties of a war between third parties, with whom we have no direct connection. Which leads us to:

War For all? We are beginning to suspect that the tendency to divide into hostile camps , who quickly resort to violence, may be a major cognitive defect in the brains of Homo sapiens. Here is our exhibit A: Recently the followers of the popular Association Football Team Manchester United were involved in violent fighting with the followers of the popular Association Football Team Glasgow Rangers. Why? What economic, intellectual or spiritual gains to they hope to make from such an expenditure of time and effort.?(not to mention the legal penalties which may accrue) What on earth divides them so deeply? Yet if people can fight over such infinitesimal differences as theirs, what hope for any of us? One thing is clear to this blog: there will be a lot more antibiotic resistance. Natural Selection does not forgive species that indulge in maladaptive behaviour. What is waiting in the wings to replace us?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/21/antibiotics-antivirals-and-vaccines-could-help-tackle-dementia-study-suggests?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[2]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20k5wrgz13o

[3]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7gnd72xe8o#:~:text=Trouble%20before%20and%20during%20Manchester%20United%27s%20Europa%

#antibiotic resistance #medicine #health #ukraine #russia #football #manchester united #rangers

Antibiotic resistance: is Magnesium the answer?

Magnesium: that abundant but essentially humble metal that finds so many uses: tin cans, consumer electronics, aviation, Epsom salts, transport…..and many more. But could it be the clue to an exciting new development in the study of antibiotic resistance? Tessa Koumoundouros of Science Alert seems to think so.

A team At UC San Diego think that magnesium is the “Achilles heel” of antibiotic resistance in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. It’s classic Darwinian Natural Selection in action. Put them in an environment with lots of antibiotic, and, hey presto, one particular strain evolves resistance. They get a competitive advantage and start to out-breed their pals without the resistant gene. But: there is no free lunch in Nature. To get an advantage in one area you have to pay a price somewhere else. Because the non resistant, more generally adapted strain are much better at coping when the magnesium levels in the environment drop. As Tessa explains:

Depriving environments of magnesium could counter the bacteria’s ability to thrive. And because unmutated strains don’t share the same flaw, reducing the key nutrient shouldn’t adversely impact bacteria needed for a healthy microbiome.

Her article contains a really clear explanation, and some good images. Great journalism.

It’s funny how research in one area suddenly gets a boost from something slightly unexpected and left-field. If we are to overcome antibiotic resistance, yes, new drugs will be needed. But, eventually, resistance will develop to them. We need other techniques too, to work alongside the new drugs. And this idea of nutrient balance seems like a really fruitful one to us.

[1]https://www.sciencealert.com/achilles-heel-of-drug-resistant-bacteria-has-been-found-scientists-say

[2]https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq5249

#magnesium #antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #microbiology #natural selection