A weakness in the defences of ‘superbug’ bacteria has been uncovered by British scientists, raising the prospect of new treatments to tackle infections that are resistant to antibiotics. [s]The Guardian[/s] reports that researchers have identified a weakness affecting the membrane barrier that surrounds some of the most drug-resistant bacterial cells. Professor Changjiang Dong, from the [b]University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School[/b], said that the discovery may pave the way to a new generation of drugs that work by bringing down the defensive wall. He said: ‘This is really important because drug-resistant bacteria are a global health problem. Many current antibiotics are becoming useless, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.’
[link url=http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/19/scientists-say-weakness-in-superbug-bacteria-could-herald-new-treatments]Full report in The Guardian[/link]
[link url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13464.html]Nature abstract[/link]