US researchers in South Carolina have made a startling discovery in their fight against superbugs like MRSA. Their research has found that a compound from a sea sponge was able to reverse antibiotic resistance in several strains of bacteria. Erstwhile resistant strains became once again sensitive to readily available antibiotics

Resensitising Resistant Bacteria To Antibiotics

Peter Moeller of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, reported that

We can resensitise these pathogenic bacteria to standard, current-generation antibiotics

Moeller works with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and North Carolina State University. His team noticed a sponge thriving in an otherwise dead coral reef and they started asking themselves how the sponge could survive when everything else was dying. The team then endeavoured to isolate the properties that helped the sponge thrive in hostile marine conditions.

The researchers found that pieces of sponge were able to repel bacterial biofilms – a slimy substance bacteria form to help stick to surfaces.

Moeller went on to say

What we found is these (sponge) derivatives actually dispersed existing bacterial biofilms as well as inhibited production of subsequent bacterial biofilms

As 65 to 80% of all human pathogenic infections are based on biofilms, this is a significant discovery.

Moeller’s team tested the substance on some of the toughest pathogens, including MRSA.

Mixing Sea Sponge With Antibiotics

The researchers found that several once-resistant bacteria were sensitive to antibiotics that were mixed with the sponge material. Moeller and his team are now working with a number of medical device companies to incorporate their discovery into the plastic materials used to make devices like stents (used to prop open diseased arteries or in intravenous lines used in critically ill patients).

Moeller envisages a new class of “helper drugs” that restore the potency of antibiotics that had previously lost the war to superbugs.

Overuse And Misuse Of Antibiotics

Overuse and misuse of antibiotics has led to drug resistance in some strains of bacteria, and this has become a serious problem in hospitals worldwide. This problem is highligted by the prevalence of  the superbug MRSA in our hospitals. In the US, infections such as MRSA kill a staggering 19,000 people every year.