WSJ: Fungus New Weapon in Fight Against ‘Superbugs’
Finally a new approach – but one that could take a decade to develop.
WSJ:
The Canadian team was able to disarm a gene—New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase-1, or NDM-1—that has become “public enemy No. 1” since its discovery in 2009, says Gerard Wright, director of McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research and lead researcher on the study. The report appears on the cover of this week’s issue of the journal Nature.
“Discovery of a fungus capable of rendering these multidrug-resistant organisms incapable of further infection is huge,” says Irena Kenneley, a microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University. “The availability of more treatment options will ultimately save many more lives,” says Dr. Kenneley, who wasn’t involved in the McMaster research.
The McMaster team plans further experiments to determine the safety and effective dosage of AMA. It could take as long as a decade to complete clinical trials on people with superbug infections, Dr. Wright says.
Chez Froggie 