Rescuing antibiotics from bacterial resistance
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Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem throughout the world, and developing new antibiotics takes time. One possibility is to increase the effectiveness of current antibiotics by reducing bacterial resistance to them.
In the Department of Genetics, Dr David Summers and his group have been researching indole signalling in bacteria, and have found that indole seems to play a role in inducing antibiotic resistance. They are now investigating the effects of interfering with indole signalling on the sensitivity of E. coli to antibiotic treatment.
“Indole is an expensive molecule for bacteria to make,” explains David. “That bacteria readily release surprisingly large quantities into their environment implies it has a function that’s worth the cost.”
David applied for pump-prime funding, and this enabled Malay Shah, an undergraduate intern from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, to join the group for the summer to work on antibiotic resistance. “I’ve been able to discover certain things that do indicate that indole certainly plays a definite role in the regulation of generating antibiotic resistance,” says Malay.
Among his discoveries is that indole can have completely contrasting effects depending on the specific antibiotic used. Whilst indole increases bacterial resistance to many antibiotics, it can also increase bacterial sensitivity to certain antibiotics, making the E.coli more vulnerable.
David hopes that this work will lead to treatments that not only enhance the effectiveness of current antibiotics, but also enable some that have fallen out of use due to resistance to come back into clinical action. By combining the ‘old’ antibiotics with a modifier of indole signalling, previously resistant bacteria may become susceptible once more to antibiotic treatment.
“The development of combination therapies could significantly enhance the effectiveness of specific antibiotics.”
The next stage for this research will be to investigate an extended range of antibiotics, including important veterinary ones, and to move the research from the lab to the clinic.