4 ms·

'Smart' antibiotic can kill deadly bacteria while sparing the microbiome

109 points by gmays 2y ago

smolder 2y ago
> “Around ten to twenty new Gram-negative antibiotics have been discovered in the last ten years”, he adds, but none has gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. They mention that novel antibiotics aren't very profitable, but also that approval can take 20+ years. What's not clear is if the referenced antibiotics are all in the long process of approval or if they're considered uneconomical or some other issue. My impression was we have a strong need for approved treatments for resistant bacteria, given the way the problem is talked about in the media. I would have expected there'd be a market for them at some price that works.
- John23832 2y ago
  > What's not clear is if the referenced antibiotics are all in the long process of approval or if they're considered uneconomical or some other issue. My impression was we have a strong need for approved treatments for resistant bacteria, given the way the problem is talked about in the media. I would have expected there'd be a market for them at some price that works. The reason novel antibiotics are not profitable is because we specifically DON'T want to use them. These novel antibiotics become fourth, fifth, sixth line treatments. And that's after probably retrying the previous line for multiple rounds at bigger dosages, or in combination therapy. So in reality, that means that drug companies are not set to make a lot of money on them. Most of the novel antibiotic development funding comes directly from the government. And even that is being cut.
  - senkora 2y ago
    I guess is comforting that we have them as a fallback if the firstline antibiotics stop working.
DoreenMichele 2y ago
Of course: "In mice." I think we would do better to focus on improving water infrastructure and hygiene resources in very poor parts of the world. We let these disease-ridden cesspits develop and fester, can med-evac someone out by plane thereby exporting the problem and we should just not let it happen to start with.
- John23832 2y ago
  This shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of research into novel antibiotics. Acinetobacter baumannii happens in your closest hospital.
  - DoreenMichele 2y ago
    African tribes stopped an ebola epidemic. One of the things they did was they told people "Don't go to the white man's hospital." because you went in with something fixable, like a broken leg, and died of ebola. The book I read that talked about that is called The Hot Zone. I wish we had posted useful info online by the government during covid and tried to keep people out of the hospital. Rest assured, I'm abundantly familiar with the dangers of hospital acquired infections. But I try to not shit stir. I try to stick as much as possible to constructive observations.
    - John23832 2y ago
      > African tribes stopped an ebola epidemic. One of the things they did was they told people "Don't go to the white man's hospital." because you went in with something fixable, like a broken leg, and died of ebola. African tribes were decimated by ebola. Survivorship bias and the lack of historical focus on Africa might make you think otherwise though. That's like saying China stopped the black plague... no, lots of people died, the numbers just weren't counted. And the black plague could have been prevented with... Doxycycline. > I wish we had posted useful info online by the government during covid and tried to keep people out of the hospital. Rest assured, I'm abundantly familiar with the dangers of hospital acquired infections. Well, you implied that multi drug resistant infections can be stopped by sanitation in third world countries (they can't, though it would be nice to help out), and invoked covid conspiracy at the same time (when covid is a virus and we're talking about antibiotics).
rubatuga 2y ago
One thing is certain, bacteria always find a way.
Madmallard 2y ago
The question now is will they trounce human mitochondria throughout the body like existing bactericidal antibiotics?
AbraKdabra 2y ago
Well that's some great news, I've been taking 2 pills of ciprofloxacin each day since February last year because of a really bad pseudomona infection which led to 4 hip surgeries and a prosthesis because my hip joint basically disintegrated itself, why do I mention it? Because I also suffer from chronic dysbiosis, that makes a really bad case of gut-not-working-as-expected, so along all the antibiotics I'm also taking probiotics to heal up the gut microbiome and a handful of other pills to ease the pain. So yeah, these are some really great news.
- galdosdi 2y ago
  Not for nothing and maybe you already know, but beware of cdiff. It can result from too many broad antibiotics and is scary as hell.
  - glial 2y ago
    I second this recommendation!
- Traubenfuchs 2y ago
  While and after taking ciprofloxacin, I had pain in my hands for weeks, injured my ankle, forearm and biceps tendons, was unable to work out for months and bashed in a door with a dumbbell when the psychosis hit. There is almost always an alternative to fluoroquinolones and next time I get mycoplasma genitalium I will fly to fucking Paris to get me some god damn pristinamycin.

109 points by gmays 2y ago

> “Around ten to twenty new Gram-negative antibiotics have been discovered in the last ten years”, he adds, but none has gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. They mention that novel antibiotics aren't very profitable, but also that approval can take 20+ years. What's not clear is if the referenced antibiotics are all in the long process of approval or if they're considered uneconomical or some other issue. My impression was we have a strong need for approved treatments for resistant bacteria, given the way the problem is talked about in the media. I would have expected there'd be a market for them at some price that works.

John23832 2y ago
> What's not clear is if the referenced antibiotics are all in the long process of approval or if they're considered uneconomical or some other issue. My impression was we have a strong need for approved treatments for resistant bacteria, given the way the problem is talked about in the media. I would have expected there'd be a market for them at some price that works. The reason novel antibiotics are not profitable is because we specifically DON'T want to use them. These novel antibiotics become fourth, fifth, sixth line treatments. And that's after probably retrying the previous line for multiple rounds at bigger dosages, or in combination therapy. So in reality, that means that drug companies are not set to make a lot of money on them. Most of the novel antibiotic development funding comes directly from the government. And even that is being cut.
- senkora 2y ago
  I guess is comforting that we have them as a fallback if the firstline antibiotics stop working.

DoreenMichele 2y ago

Of course: "In mice." I think we would do better to focus on improving water infrastructure and hygiene resources in very poor parts of the world. We let these disease-ridden cesspits develop and fester, can med-evac someone out by plane thereby exporting the problem and we should just not let it happen to start with.

John23832 2y ago
This shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of research into novel antibiotics. Acinetobacter baumannii happens in your closest hospital.
- DoreenMichele 2y ago
  African tribes stopped an ebola epidemic. One of the things they did was they told people "Don't go to the white man's hospital." because you went in with something fixable, like a broken leg, and died of ebola. The book I read that talked about that is called The Hot Zone. I wish we had posted useful info online by the government during covid and tried to keep people out of the hospital. Rest assured, I'm abundantly familiar with the dangers of hospital acquired infections. But I try to not shit stir. I try to stick as much as possible to constructive observations.
  - John23832 2y ago
    > African tribes stopped an ebola epidemic. One of the things they did was they told people "Don't go to the white man's hospital." because you went in with something fixable, like a broken leg, and died of ebola. African tribes were decimated by ebola. Survivorship bias and the lack of historical focus on Africa might make you think otherwise though. That's like saying China stopped the black plague... no, lots of people died, the numbers just weren't counted. And the black plague could have been prevented with... Doxycycline. > I wish we had posted useful info online by the government during covid and tried to keep people out of the hospital. Rest assured, I'm abundantly familiar with the dangers of hospital acquired infections. Well, you implied that multi drug resistant infections can be stopped by sanitation in third world countries (they can't, though it would be nice to help out), and invoked covid conspiracy at the same time (when covid is a virus and we're talking about antibiotics).

rubatuga 2y ago

One thing is certain, bacteria always find a way.

Madmallard 2y ago

The question now is will they trounce human mitochondria throughout the body like existing bactericidal antibiotics?

AbraKdabra 2y ago

Well that's some great news, I've been taking 2 pills of ciprofloxacin each day since February last year because of a really bad pseudomona infection which led to 4 hip surgeries and a prosthesis because my hip joint basically disintegrated itself, why do I mention it? Because I also suffer from chronic dysbiosis, that makes a really bad case of gut-not-working-as-expected, so along all the antibiotics I'm also taking probiotics to heal up the gut microbiome and a handful of other pills to ease the pain. So yeah, these are some really great news.

galdosdi 2y ago
Not for nothing and maybe you already know, but beware of cdiff. It can result from too many broad antibiotics and is scary as hell.
- glial 2y ago
  I second this recommendation!
Traubenfuchs 2y ago
While and after taking ciprofloxacin, I had pain in my hands for weeks, injured my ankle, forearm and biceps tendons, was unable to work out for months and bashed in a door with a dumbbell when the psychosis hit. There is almost always an alternative to fluoroquinolones and next time I get mycoplasma genitalium I will fly to fucking Paris to get me some god damn pristinamycin.