14-Sep-16 A new class of star-shaped polymers has proven effective at killing drug-resistant bacteria, opening new potential treatment options in the future. A team from the Melbourne School of Engineering has developed a new class of star-like protein chains or “peptide polymers,” that can effectively kill bacteria which are impervious to current antibiotics.
Professor Greg Qiao from the school’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and his team said that the only real avenue of treatment currently available for infections caused by bacteria is antibiotics. But he’s worried that if we continue the arms race with bacteria in this way, we will be left defenseless in a few decades. The team has been working with peptide polymers for the past few years, looking for a way to weaponize them in our favor. Recently, they developed a star-shaped polymer that might become one of the best foot-soldier in this fight. And the upshot is that the substance is harmless to the patient.
Tests undertaken on mice have shown that the polymer is extremely effective at killing Gram-negative bacteria — a class known for its propensity to develop antibiotic resistance. The bacteria showed no signs of resistance against the peptide polymers, and the little ninja stars have shown they can destroy bacteria through multiple pathways, unlike most antibiotics which kill with a single pathway — meaning they can be used to cure several types of bacteria. They’ve also determined experimentally, by testing with red blood cells, that you’d have to pump 100 times the effective dosage into a patient for it to become toxic to the body. While more research is needed to bring the ninja stars of bactericide to market, Professor Qiao and his team believe that their discovery is the beginning of unlocking a new treatment for antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
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