Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Scripps Research have found a way to restore the effectiveness of vancomycin against drug-resistant bacteria, according to ScienceDaily.
Vancomycin is a powerful antibiotic used to treat serious infections, including those caused by MRSA and C. diff. But as bacteria develop resistance, drugs like vancomycin can lose their ability to stop them.
In the new study, the researchers targeted a bacterial enzyme called secreted antigen A, or SagA, and blocked it with a small molecule known as pghi-4. That compound was first identified in the Moses laboratory in 2020.
When drug-resistant E. faecium was treated with both vancomycin and pghi-4, the antibiotic regained its ability to kill the bacteria. The team says the work could help guide similar approaches for other drug-resistant infections in the future.
