New shape-shifting antibiotics could fight deadly infections responsible for more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide every year, according to a new study. Essential and effective antibiotics have been overused - leading to some bacteria and fungi developing resistance, say scientists.
The issue is so severe the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ranked antibiotic resistance as a top 10 global public health threat. To combat this, scientists developed an antibiotic that can shape-shift by rearranging its atoms, using new “click” chemistry that won the 2022 Nobel Prize.
The drug’s creator, Professor John Moses at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), New York, was inspired by tanks in military training exercises with rotating turrets and nimble movements allowing them to react quickly to potential threats. Years later, Professor Moses discovered a bullvalene, a fluxional molecule where atoms can swap positions.
Bullvalene’s changing shape means it can adopt over a million possible configurations. Bacteria including MRSA, VRSA, and VRW have developed resistance to potent antibiotic vancomycin, used to treat diseases from skin infections to meningitis.
The Professor used new click chemistry - where chemical reactions can “click” molecules together reliably - to combine bullvalene to the vancomycin. Professor Moses created a new antibiotic with two vancomycin “warheads” and a fluctuating bullvalene centre, before giving the drug to a VRE-infected wax moth larvae, a common test-bunny for antibiotics.
The shape-shifting antibiotic was significantly more effective than vancomycin at clearing the deadly infection, and the bacteria did not develop resistance to the drug. Professor Moses believes click chemistry can create a host of new shape-shifting drugs “key to our species survival.”
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He said: “Click chemistry is great. It gives you certainty and the best chance you’ve got of making complex things." Prof Moses added: “If we can invent molecules that mean the difference between life and death. That’d be the greatest achievement ever.”
The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
