Never underestimate the role antibiotics have played in our lives. After World War II, when the widespread use of penicillin ushered in the “golden age” of antibiotics and the discovery of many new antibiotics, infections once a major killer were a thing of the past. Before the 20th century, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. As of 2021, life expectancy was her 76.4 years.
But given that bacteria are the oldest life forms on Earth, it’s no surprise that they were able to fight back. That means microbes that have evolved to be resistant to drugs can quickly dominate populations and render antibiotics ineffective.
The latest promising research into the fight against these stubborn and smart superbugs is, quite simply, gold. When we lined up 19 gold compounds against several types of multidrug-resistant bacteria, we found very encouraging results.
This isn’t the first time the precious mineral has been touted as a potential lifesaver due to its antibacterial properties, gold nanoparticles have been studied alone and combined with infrared therapy to fight off infections.
Metal antibiotics – compounds with gold ions in their core – can kill bacteria and prevent them from adapting to resistance formation.
“Gold complexes use a variety of techniques to kill bacteria,” said Sara Soto Gonzalez of the Barcelona Institute. To do.”
Team tested gold compound against bugs including methicillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Acinetobacter baumannii and bacterial pneumonia.
There is high evidence of efficacy against MRSA, S. epidermis .
“It is particularly exciting to see that some of the gold complexes were effective against MRSA and multidrug resistance. A. Baumanyas [these are the} two biggest causes of hospital-acquired infections,” Soto Gonzalez said. “With research on other types of gold metalloantibiotics also providing promising results, the future is bright for gold-based antibiotics.”
While in a preliminary study stage, the researchers point out that development of this kind of antibiotic would be neither expensive nor difficult.
“The type of gold complexes we studied, known as gold (III) complexes, are relatively straightforward and inexpensive to make,” Soto Gonzalez added. “They can also be easily modified and so provide a vast amount of scope for drug development.”
The new research paper will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen between April 15-18.
Source: European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
