The Battle Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: A Promising New Approach
Developing antibiotics to counter multidrug-resistant bacteria, especially those that affect the airways, has been an increasingly challenging task. However, a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) presents a unique strategy that shows promise. The research concluded that photodynamic inactivation (PDI) demonstrated the ability to modify bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics, effectively reducing resistance and persistence of both standard and clinical strains.
The lead author of the study is Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, a physicist and materials engineer at the University of São Paulo’s São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in Brazil.
The research focused on Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that causes various diseases from skin infections to pneumonia. The study analyzed the effects of photodynamic action on resistant bacteria collected from patients and bacterial cells with laboratory-induced resistance. The results revealed that five cycles of PDI were sufficient to break their resistance.
In PDI, a dye called a photosensitizer absorbs visible light and forms reactive oxygen species that can weaken the antibiotic resistance of microorganisms. For this study, the researchers used curcumin as the photosensitizer and worked with three antibiotics—amoxicillin, erythromycin, and gentamicin. After the five cycles of PDI, the bacteria showed increased susceptibility to the antibiotics.
“We discovered that PDI doesn’t always destroy the bacteria, but it does destroy part of the mechanisms they use to become drug-resistant. This led to the idea of trying an oxidative shock to make them susceptible to antibiotics,” Bagnato explained.
AMR (antimicrobial resistance) is a critical global public health threat identified by the World Health Organization. AMR could cost the global economy USD 100 trillion by 2050 if no action is taken. According to a WHO report, antimicrobial resistance is estimated to cause 1.2 million deaths directly every year, with almost 5 million others indirectly associated with it.
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