• Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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    10 months ago

    i think the key here is:

    zosurabalpin doesn’t seem to work on any other Gram-negative bacteria besides A. baumannii. The proteins in the LPS transporter complex are not conserved across different bacteria. Thus, targeting the LPS transporters of other nefarious Gram-negative bacteria will take yet more drug development research. One bright side of this, as Gugger and Hergenrother note in their commentary, is that it may produce species-specific antibiotics, which could protect patients’ microbiomes from being obliterated by broad-spectrum drugs, which we now appreciate is bad for human health.

    And, of course, with any new antibiotic, there’s the inevitability that bacteria will develop resistance. The researchers already found that select mutations in the LPS transporter machinery can knock back the drug’s potency. Also, A. baumannii doesn’t need LPS to stay alive. That said, simply blocking LPS production would leave A. baumannii more vulnerable, and it’s unclear how that trade-off will play out in clinical settings.