Beyond antibiotics: Researchers are uncovering unusual ways to attack superbugs.
Yale University researcher Benjamin Chan, who studies viruses that attack bacteria, holds bacteriophage treatment for patient Ella Balasa, of Richmond, Va., at Osborn Memorial Laboratories, in New Haven, Conn., Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Bacteriophages were discovered a century ago but largely shelved when easier-to-use antibiotics came along. NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Bacteria lodged deep in Ella Balasa’s lungs were impervious to most antibiotics.
At least 23,000 Americans die every year as a direct result of an antibiotic-resistant infection, and many more die from related complications, according to a 2013 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC plans an updated count, but other research has estimated the toll could be seven times higher.
Finding alternatives means “figuring out what the vulnerabilities of infecting bacteria are. What do they need to cause an infection?” said Dr. Pradeep Singh of the University of Washington. Singh and fellow UW lung specialist Dr. Christopher Goss zeroed in on iron, a nutrient vital for bacterial growth. It turns out that bugs can’t always tell the difference between iron and a chemically similar metal named gallium. Gallium doesn’t nourish and knocks other systems out of whack, Goss said.
In Virginia, Balasa learned of another cystic fibrosis patient helped by Yale’s phage experiments and asked to try, hoping to postpone the last option for CF, a lung transplant. Phages work very differently than traditional antibiotics. Like a parasite, the virus infiltrates bacterial cells and uses them to copy itself, killing the bug as those copies pop out and search for more bacteria. Once the infection’s gone, the virus dies out.
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