IIT Roorkee : Antibiotic resistance, a growing global concern, poses a serious risk as it can make once-treatable infections potentially fatal. By 2050, it is projected that antibiotic-resistant infections may lead to 10 million deaths each year, surpassing even cancer-related deaths. With this urgency, scientists are exploring new ways to counteract bacterial resistance and identify effective antibacterial targets.
A recent study from IIT Roorkee, led by Prof. Ranjana Pathania’s research group, has revealed that a specific bacterial protein, called L,D-transpeptidase A (LdtA), plays a crucial role in helping bacteria evade the effects of rod complex targeting antibacterials, including mecillinam. Mecillinam is commonly used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by E. coli. When LdtA is present in high amounts, bacteria can develop resistance against this key antibiotic.
During the study, researchers identified that when bacteria were exposed to a newly developed rod complex protein targeting compound, IITR07865, for a period of 30 days, certain mutations developed that increased the bacteria’s resilience. These mutations, coupled with the overproduction of LdtA, made the bacteria resistant not only to IITR07865 but also to mecillinam, which normally targets the bacterial cell wall.
Prof. Ranjana Pathania remarked, “Our research brings us closer to dismantling the defenses bacteria use to evade antibiotics. This breakthrough is a vital step toward developing smarter and more resilient treatment strategies to protect global health and preserve the power of antibiotics for future generations.”
This breakthrough opens the door to a promising new strategy: combining mecillinam with an LdtA inhibitor, which could make treatments more effective against resistant bacteria in the future. The findings of this study have been published in the prestigious ACS Infectious Diseases journal, highlighting its importance to the global scientific community.
Professor Kamal Kishore Pant, Director of IIT Roorkee, commented, “Our work on antibiotic resistance underscores IIT Roorkee’s commitment to addressing critical challenges in healthcare. This discovery not only adds to our understanding of resistance mechanisms but also points towards innovative treatment options for bacterial infections, safeguarding public health for the future.”
This study highlights the importance of understanding how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, showing that targeting specific proteins could be a game-changer. With these insights, researchers can now explore combined treatments to make antibiotics more effective, ultimately protecting us from infections that might otherwise become untreatable.
