* University of Oxford…

More than 1.2 million people – and potentially millions more – died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to the most comprehensive estimate to date of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The analysis of 204 countries and territories, published in The Lancet, reveals that AMR is now a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria. It shows that many hundreds of thousands of deaths now occur due to common, previously treatable infections – such as lower respiratory and bloodstream infections – because the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment. […]

The analysis shows AMR was directly responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths worldwide, and associated with an estimated 4.95 million deaths, in 2019. HIV/AIDS and malaria have been estimated to have caused 860,000 and 640,000 deaths, respectively, in 2019.

* This morning, a commenter pointed out a story from last month. Sun-Times…

Bacterial resistance may be nearly impossible thanks to a new antibiotic researched by scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The antibiotic attacks bacteria in two different ways, making it 100 million times more difficult for that bacteria to develop resistance, researchers found in a new study published Monday.

Bacterial resistance, also called antibiotic resistance, happens when bacteria change so that antibiotics can’t kill them or stop their growth. That can make it difficult, if not impossible, to treat a bacterial infection. The World Health Organization considers bacterial resistance a global public health threat.

UIC scientists examined how a class of synthetic antibiotic drugs called macrolones disrupt how bacteria function to fight infectious diseases. Their findings, published in Nature Chemical Biology, determined that macrolones can both interfere with protein production within the cells of the bacteria and corrupt its DNA structure.

Since the bacteria would have to fight both attacks at the same time, drug resistance would be nearly impossible, researchers found.

* UIC Today…

“The beauty of this antibiotic is that it kills through two different targets in bacteria,” said Alexander Mankin, distinguished professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UIC. “If the antibiotic hits both targets at the same concentration, then the bacteria lose their ability to become resistant via acquisition of random mutations in any of the two targets.”

Macrolones are synthetic antibiotics that combine the structures of two widely used antibiotics with different mechanisms. Macrolides, such as erythromycin, block the ribosome, the protein-manufacturing factories of the cell. Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, target a bacteria-specific enzyme called DNA gyrase. […]

Other experiments tested whether the macrolone drugs preferentially inhibited the ribosome or the DNA gyrase enzymes at various doses. While many designs were better at blocking one target or another, one that interfered with both at its lowest effective dose stood out as the most promising candidate. […]

The study also reflects the interdisciplinary collaboration at the UIC Molecular Biology Research Building, where researchers from the colleges of medicine, pharmacy and liberal arts and sciences share neighboring laboratories and drive basic science discoveries like this one, the authors said.

The study is here.