Scientists at Tel Aviv University have made a breakthrough discovery which can solve the issue of curing drug-resistant bacteria – a threat to global health, affecting all ages.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. This has threatened the achievements of modern medicine for years, and each year 700,000 deaths are attributed to AMR.
This revelation will actively help the global medical community to fight the infections and progress future technology. Professor Qimron said: “We hope our approach will be used to further identify new growth inhibitors and their targets across bacterial species in higher organisms”.
The research team genetically engineered bacteriophages to contain the desired DNA rather than their own genome. They also, designed combinations of nanoparticles from different bacteriophages and used directed evolution to select hybrid particles able to transfer DNA with optimal efficiency.
The Israeli team found that a single type of bacteriophage can be adapted to a wide range of bacteria, an innovation which will likely accelerate the development of potential drugs based on this principle. Prof. Qimron said. “We’ve developed a technology that significantly expands DNA delivery into bacterial pathogens. This may indeed be a milestone, because it opens up many opportunities for DNA manipulations of bacteria that were impossible to accomplish before”.
Researchers say that this successful discovery will be useful to the global medical community and will lead to the development of a new critical antibiotic, saving many lives.
