Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Molecular machine drills holes in antibiotic-resistant bacteria killing them

Good news! A very different approach to antibiotics and it is fast acting and bacterial resistance is lacking! Possibly, a breakthrough!

This new treatment may first be available only as topical antibiotics.

"Light-activated molecular machines have been created that act as a broad-spectrum ‘antibiotic’ to mechanically damage bacterial cell membranes. Although this research is currently at an early pre-clinical stage, initial in vivo studies are encouraging. ...
[Researchers] have now developed a range of blue light-activated molecular machines that demonstrate fast-acting and broad-spectrum antibacterial activity via mechanical disruption of the cell membrane. The positively-charged molecular motors are selectively drawn to the negatively-charged membranes of bacterial cells and, on exposure to light, drill into the membrane, allowing the contents to leak out. ..."

From the abstract:
"... Here, we report the discovery of a distinctive antibacterial therapy that uses visible (405 nanometers) light-activated synthetic molecular machines (MMs) to kill Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in minutes, vastly outpacing conventional antibiotics. MMs also rapidly eliminate persister cells and established bacterial biofilms. The antibacterial mode of action of MMs involves physical disruption of the membrane. In addition, by permeabilizing the membrane, MMs at sublethal doses potentiate the action of conventional antibiotics. Repeated exposure to antibacterial MMs is not accompanied by resistance development. Finally, therapeutic doses of MMs mitigate mortality associated with bacterial infection in an in vivo model of burn wound infection. Visible light–activated MMs represent an unconventional antibacterial mode of action by mechanical disruption at the molecular scale, not existent in nature and to which resistance development is unlikely."

Molecular machine drills holes in antibiotic-resistant bacteria killing them | Research | Chemistry World

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