Antimicrobial resistance – occurring when pathogens can survive antibiotic treatment – is one of the most rapidly emerging global public health threats today.
Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLMOct 19 2023 According to a 2022 study, nearly five million deaths were associated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 2019, with over a million deaths per year directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance.
Previously, there have been studies on specific drug combinations, especially those commonly prescribed together in the clinic. However, we lacked systematic knowledge of how combinations of different classes of antibiotics, or combinations of antibiotics and non-antibiotic drugs, influence bacterial physiology, especially when considered independently of the host.
Related StoriesIn a previous study, researchers from the Typas Group had profiled drug combinations against Gram-negative bacteria – a class that includes many deadly antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, including E. coli, Salmonella enterica, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, many deadly antimicrobial-resistant bacteria also belong to the Gram-positive category, including Staphylococcus aureus, whose methicillin-resistant variant causes hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.
Using this strategy, the team identified over a thousand interactions, including both synergies and antagonisms. The effects were highly species- and even strain-specific, and distinct from the interactions seen in the previous study in Gram-negative bacteria. They also validated some of these results in vivo, by infecting moth larvae with the pathogen and testing the ability of specific drug combinations to aid in recovery.
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