BANGALORE: Scientists in a city research institute have developed a drug that will not only treat bacterial infections but will also prevent bacteria from turning resistant to medicines.
Dr Jayanta Haldar, scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) said, “Bacteria have even become resistant to antibiotics such as Vancomycin, known as a drug of last resort, which is used to treat MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
In such a case we are in dire need of a drug that will kill the resistant bacteria. In the course of our research we found a drug that uses a different mechanism to kill the bacteria and makes it difficult for the bacteria to develop resistance against it.”
Haldar and his team consisting of Venkateswarlu Yarlagadda, Padma Akkapeddi and Goutham Manjunath have developed a drug that disrupts the cell membrane of the bacteria. The findings were reported recently in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
Conventional antibiotics like Vancomycin stick to the bacterial cell wall and prevent it from growing, thus killing the bacteria. But once the bacteria mutates (changes occur in its DNA), the antibiotic can no longer bind strongly and kill the bacteria.
The scientists have checked for the efficacy of this new drug against various bacteria in the lab. While they all turned resistant to Vancomycin, none of them developed resistance to Haldar’s drug.
Dr Mahesh Kumar, general physician at Narayana Health City, said, “We have many cases of patients on ventilators with multi-drug infection. If the patient turns resistant to Vancomycin then we do not have anything left. It is good to have a drug in the pipeline.”
Haldar said, “To become resistant to the new molecule is not easy as the mechanism of action here is by disruption of the cell membrane. We have filed for the drug’s patent in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe and South Korea. We are on the look out for pharmaceutical industries who would like to hold clinical trials and market the drug.”