Together with colleagues, COMBACTE-MAGNET’s Evelina Tacconelli, Work Package Lead for EPI-Net, recently published an article on microbiome and R&D for new drugs effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The article was published on February 17th in the Science journal.
The dynamic microbiota that populate all human body surfaces affect health and disease in complex and often subtle ways. At the same time, human gastrointestinal and respiratory tract microbiota are the reservoirs for most of the human pathogens that cause invasive bacterial infections.
Antibiotic resistance in such pathogens has dramatically increased in recent years, resulting in infections that are much more difficult to treat (1, 2). To counter this rise, research and development efforts must target not only new broad-spectrum antibiotics, but also decolonization agents that disrupt the major endogenous reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens (ARBPs) and reduce the risk of infections that do not respond to treatment.
ARBPs used to spread mostly among atrisk patients in health care settings. However, the pathogens no longer adhere to this rule. They spread in the community, colonizing the microbiota of both healthy and diseased humans, and enter hospitals with patients on admission.