Date published: 2006/05/18
The BBC says:
A potent antibiotic which kills many bacteria, including MRSA, has been discovered by scientists.
The researchers, from the drug company Merck, isolated platensimycin from a sample of South African soil.
If the compound passes clinical trials it will become only the third entirely new antibiotic developed in the last four decades.
Details in the journal Nature reveal the antibiotic works in a completely different way to all others.
It acts to block enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which bacteria need to construct cell membranes.
Most classes of antibiotic were discovered in the 1940s and 1950s, and work by blocking synthesis of the cell wall, DNA and proteins within bacteria.
Most of today's antibiotics are simply tweaks of this basic format.
The fact that they work in similar ways may be one reason why bacteria are proving so adept at developing resistance.
Thus a new class of antibiotics with a different method of action could represent a major breakthrough.
Sounds good. If this drug comes to market hopefully South Africa will get some of the money the revenue (but what are the odds).
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