Antibiotic resistance is a pressing challenge facing the healthcare industry but a new antibiotic called teixobactin may work for longer before bacteria becomes resistant, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
"Teixobactin is a promising therapeutic candidate; it is effective against drug-resistant pathogens in a number of animal models of infection," according to the study.
The experimental antibiotic — which was found in an isolated sample of dirt — has yet to be tested on people but has shown great promise in its tests on mice, according to a Bloomberg report.
Teixobactin successfully cured all mice infected with a typically fatal strain of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci and proved effective against gram-positive bacteria, such as streptococcus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The drug was not, however, able to permeate the stronger walls of gram-negative bacteria like E. coli.
Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis — which are neither a gram-positive nor gram-negative — were also successfully attached by teixobactin, according to the report.
"The properties of teixobactin suggest that it evolved to minimize resistance development by target microorganisms," according to the study. "It is likely that additional natural compounds with similarly low susceptibility to resistance are present in nature and are waiting to be discovered."
Despite the drug's promise, it would likely take many years and many millions of dollars to make teixobactin market-ready, Kim Lewis, one of the study's authors and a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, told Bloomberg.
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