One Small Step For a New Kind of Antibiotic?

Gram-negative bacteria are protected by their outer lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-containing shell. That shell enables them to live in harsh environments. It also means they largely evade attacks by host immune systems. Antibiotic resistance of all bacteria is an increasing medical problem, threatening to return humanity to a pre-antibiotics age. In deed, no new antibiotic has been approved for Gram-negative bacteria for more than 50 years. Things appear to be changing, however, with the discovery of an entirely new class of antibiotics (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/03/scientists-new-class-antibiotic-kill-drug-resistant-bacteria). Zosurabalpin largely cured infections by highly drug resistant strains of Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumanni in mouse models of pneumonia and sepsis. It appeared to do this, by preventing LPS transport to the bacterium's outer membrane. This blocked bacterial division, killing the microbe. Zosurabalpin (and other new compounds), suggest that targeting transport systems in other bacteria, is an effective means of countering antibiotic resistance. Zosurabalpin is now going on to human trials.