“Newly Discovered Antibiotic Drug Offers Hope For Treating MRSA”

“A new class of antibiotics chemically related to vitamin A have shown early promise by killing MRSA in mice.

The research reported today in Nature and led by researchers at Brown University, used an assay which tested the ability of 82,000 synthetic compounds to stop MRSA from killing tiny worms called C.elegans. They identified almost 200 promising compounds that eradicated the bacteria, while not killing the worms, and chose two to move forward with due to previous evidence they might be useful antibiotics.

Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD, leader of the study from the Medical School of Brown University said: “We are very optimistic about the way these compounds function. They target the membrane, a very finely tuned part of the bacteria which is very susceptible to targeting by drugs.”

Source: Pharma & Healthcare