‘Giant leap’ made by scientists using supercomputers to fight antibiotic resistance

Scientists have made a “giant leap” in combatting resistance to antibiotics – which is considered to be the greatest threat to human health – through the use of supercomputers.

Each year, about 700,000 people are estimated to die because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and that number is expected to increase into the millions in coming years.

Without effective antibiotics, a person’s life expectancy could drop by 20 years prompting scientists to develop new antibiotics that can fight disease quicker, before it is able to mutate.

Now an international team of researchers, co-led by Dr Gerhard Koenig of the University of Portsmouth, are using computers to redesign existing antibiotics to keep up with changing diseases for a study published in the journal PNAS.

Dr Koenig, a computational chemist, said: “Antibiotics are one of the pillars of modern medicine and antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human health. There’s an urgent need to develop new ways of fighting ever-evolving bacteria.”

“Developing a new antibiotic usually involves finding a new target that is essential for the survival of a wide range of different bacteria,” Dr Koenig added.

“This is extremely difficult, and only very few new classes of antibiotics have been developed in recent times.

“We have taken a simpler approach by starting from an existing antibiotic, which is ineffective against new resistant strains, and modifying it so it’s now able to overcome resistance mechanisms.”

The research team have proposed a drug candidate – which is yet to undergo clinical trials – that is up to 56 times more active for tested bacterial strains than antibiotics on the World Health Organisation’s list of essential medicines.

Dr Koenig said: “Not only is our best candidate more effective against the tested targets, but it also shows activity against the three top ranked bacteria from the WHO priority list where the tested existing antibiotics don’t work.

“It’s only a matter of time until bacteria develop counterstrategies against our counterstrategies and become resistant to the new antibiotic, so we will have to keep on studying bacterial resistance mechanisms and develop new derivatives accordingly.”

The study shows how science can be used to combat antibiotic resistance through the use of computational evolution of new drugs.

Dr Koenig said: “Our computers are becoming faster with every year. So, there is some hope that we will be able to turn the tide.

“If computers can beat the world champion in chess, I don’t see why they should not also be able to defeat bacteria.”