Copper could lead the next generation of antibiotics as yet another superbug stalks the globe.
We live in dangerous times as I see yet another drug resistant superbug outbreak is occurring globally.
And Candida Auris could be the deadliest of all-over 90% of C. auris infections are resistant to at least one anti fungal drug, while 30% are resistant to two or more major drugs.
New U.S. research though may hold the answer to fighting such deadly bugs.
University of Arizona researchers are looking at copper’s toxicity in bacteria and studying how it might impact pneumonia-a disease that kills 5M people a year. The current vaccine only covers 25% of strains.
Taking their lead from copper’s antimicrobial, bug killing reputation, immunobiologist, Dr Michael Johnson, is looking at just how susceptible to copper stress certain bacteria are. And that human bodies can use it to combat bacteria.
Armed with a a 5 year, $1.9M grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Dr Johnson hopes to make copper the cornerstone for the next generation of antibiotics.
You might ask “why not just take copper pills”, but the solution to our germ woes isn’t that simple.
Scientists still don’t understand why or how copper is toxic to bacteria in the first place, and to figure that out they need to know how exactly bacteria fight it off.
Dr. Johnson is focusing on the copper-sensing protein CopY that controls the system that tosses out copper as quickly as possible.
As Dr Johnson says “We’re making fewer and fewer antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is going up. That is not sustainable. We need to reverse this trend and find more things that will kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”
Find his research here: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/exploring-coppers-potential-antibiotic