Live Antibiotics Use Bacteria to Kill Bacteria

Back in 2016, a woman died of septic shock, after it turned out that the bacterial infection she was suffering from was resistant to all 26 antibiotics available in the US. Even though cases like these are not common, they are still a great threat. In order to avoid this scenario, a few scientists came up with a new approach.

Their solution is a so-called ‘living antibiotic’ method: a treatment containing bacteria against the bacterial infection. The scientists – coming from the US, South Korea, England, and Israel – are supported by DARPA, an agency that invests in breakthrough technologies. The project is called ‘Pathogen Predators‘ and it involves “motile predatory bacteria that prey upon and consume other Gram-negative bacteria“. Two such ‘predators’, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Micavibrio aeruginosavorus were tested in in vitro studies that showed that they are effective against more than 100 (drug resistant) human pathogens. These findings suggest it may be possible to develop such a treatment that may be effective against a broad range of Gram-negative bacteria.

The specific mechanism of these ‘live antibiotics’ is that B. bacteriovorus or M. aeruginosavorus will force their way into the bacterial host, settling inbetween its inner and outer membrane. The predator will then basically eat its way inside the bacterial host and replicate, until it finally bursts out of the now dead prey. No DNA from the bacterium is left behind, thus new forms of resistance are not likely to form.

The treament was tested on zebra fish larvae, and the predators proved extremely effective against the bacteria. The 50,000 bacteria injected in the fish was reduced to 1,000 within 48 hours. B. bacteriovorus acts fast, and has enough time to attach the infection before the immune system starts attacking it too (once the infection is reduced by the predator). The immune system does not target the predator bacteria, but once out of food B. bacteriovorus dies on its own.

Read the Original article here.

Source: Science News