An antibiotic which does not become less effective may have been discovered. The new antibiotic is called Teixobactin, and is effective against MRSA. It is still early days. Trials have not yet begun. At the moment, it shows no problems with bacterial resistance. The last such discovery was Vancomycin, which did not suffer from resistance problems for 30 years. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30657486 Title should have been: Resistance Resistant Antibiotic Discovered. Teixobactin
Yes, very good news and highly significant. In fact, one could say just in the nick of time. To be fair, they do not say bacteria will never develop resistance to this, just that it is expected to take 30 years or more. I don't find 30 years is that long myself, but perhaps they are being conservative.
Vancomycin was protected - by the time of its development the problem of evolutionary resistance had become well known and critical, and measures to prevent it were adopted for vancomycin. That is the major reason resistance took as long as it did to evolve. The thirty year timeline is not conservative, but optimistic - it presumes effective measures to prevent resistance from evolving will be universally adopted and rigidly employed, and that the slow response of the lab pathogens tested in series is typical, that there are no shortcut circumstances or pathogenic capabilities in the outer world.
If someone could develop an antibiotic to which bacteria could not develop resistance, that would be the holy grail. At the moment the drug companies are themselves resistant, to spend vast amounts of money developing a drug which will only be used as a method of last resort. Vancomycin worked by binding polymers necessary for forming cell walls. (In green) This is hard for the bacteria to adapt to. Teixobactin acts in a similar way. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Vancomycin binding cell wall precursor.
