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Credit: Dani Machlis/BGU
BEER-SHEVA, Israel May 10, 2021 - Researchers from Ben-Gurion University (BGU), together with American and German colleagues, have developed new molecular tweezers to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Their recently announced findings were published in
Cell Chemical Biology.
For years, medical professionals have struggled with bacterial infections becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. These molecular tweezers may be the key to battling one of greatest public health issues of the 21st century. Our discovery prevents infection without building up antibiotic resistance, and it might even be preferable to develop treatments based on molecular tweezers rather than antibiotics, said BGU Department of Chemistry Prof. Raz Jelinek.
May 18, 2021
The team, led by BGU’s Department of Chemistry Prof. Raz Jelinek, and postdoc in his lab Dr. RavitMalishev , tested their molecular tweezers on the Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) bacteria. Staph infections have an estimated mortality rate in the US of over 25%, and as much as 40% for drug-resistant strains. The researchers developed two specific tweezers that bind and either disrupt biofilm formation or break existing biofilms.
“Our discovery prevents infection without building up antibiotic resistance. As such, it might even be preferable to construct treatments based on molecular tweezers rather than antibiotics,” says Prof. Jelinek, who is also Ben-Gurion University’s Vice President of Research & Development and a member of the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. “Importantly, binding the tweezers to the biofilm disrupts its protective capabilities. In consequence, the bacterial pathogens become, on the one hand, much less virulent to