SINGAPORE has joined the global race to create a super antibiotic by mimicking the action of the body's natural defences. Local eye researchers recently patented two potential drugs which seem to act against resistant bacteria in eye infections.
The Singapore Eye Research Institute (Seri), which hopes to test the drugs on humans in about two years, joins at least 45 laboratories and eight drug companies worldwide that are working on replicating the effects of proteins called defensins.
Defensins do not work like normal antibiotics, which attack key spots in bacteria to stop them from multiplying. Instead, these immune system proteins merge with the surfaces of bacteria and cause them to rupture. Professor Roger Beuerman, Seri's deputy director, explained it this way: 'Defensins work in a non-specific way. It takes much longer for bacteria to develop resistance because they have to change their whole surface.'
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria mutate to withstand even the strongest drugs for illnesses ranging from tuberculosis to pneumonia. The eye institute, in partnership with some universities and hospitals in Singapore, is believed to be the first to have come up with man-made defensins for eye infections. Most research worldwide focuses on skin and lung infections.
Prof Beuerman is working with Dr Chandra Verma, of the Bioinformatics Institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), to come up with computer models of potential antibiotics, which Seri researchers then create and test. Seri's two potential drugs have shown a lot of promise, and were found in animal tests to kill off even notoriously difficult to treat methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria.
Defensins, discovered in 1985 by a team of scientists in the United States, have been found in skin infections and in the tears of infected eyes. They were hailed as the answer to multi-drug resistant bacteria, but because the actual proteins created in the body take too long to work, researchers have modified them in the laboratory to create a fast-acting variant.
Dr Michael Entzeroth, senior vice-president of drug discovery at A*Star's Experimental Therapeutics Centre, said: 'This is a new therapeutic way to overcome drug resistance and treat patients who would otherwise be very difficult to treat.
'With defensins, scientists have found a new mechanism of action that is also a defensive strategy developed by the body.'
Prof Beuerman is hoping his centre's new antibiotics can treat eye infections rampant in Singapore. Our tropical climate is loved by bacteria, and the high number of contact lens users here are the most prone to developing eye infections. Up to 40 contact lens wearers seen by Singapore General Hospital in the past two years risked going blind after they contracted infections, said Dr Lim Li, senior consultant ophthalmologist at the Singapore National Eye Centre.
Two companies are already testing potential products on people. American biotech company PolyMedix is developing defensin-based antibiotics for heart and blood vessel diseases, while British drug maker Sinclair Pharma is testing another for acne. If the drugs make it past the testing phases, it will be three to five years before they reach the market.
The Singapore Eye Research Institute (Seri), which hopes to test the drugs on humans in about two years, joins at least 45 laboratories and eight drug companies worldwide that are working on replicating the effects of proteins called defensins.
Defensins do not work like normal antibiotics, which attack key spots in bacteria to stop them from multiplying. Instead, these immune system proteins merge with the surfaces of bacteria and cause them to rupture. Professor Roger Beuerman, Seri's deputy director, explained it this way: 'Defensins work in a non-specific way. It takes much longer for bacteria to develop resistance because they have to change their whole surface.'
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria mutate to withstand even the strongest drugs for illnesses ranging from tuberculosis to pneumonia. The eye institute, in partnership with some universities and hospitals in Singapore, is believed to be the first to have come up with man-made defensins for eye infections. Most research worldwide focuses on skin and lung infections.
Prof Beuerman is working with Dr Chandra Verma, of the Bioinformatics Institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), to come up with computer models of potential antibiotics, which Seri researchers then create and test. Seri's two potential drugs have shown a lot of promise, and were found in animal tests to kill off even notoriously difficult to treat methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria.
Defensins, discovered in 1985 by a team of scientists in the United States, have been found in skin infections and in the tears of infected eyes. They were hailed as the answer to multi-drug resistant bacteria, but because the actual proteins created in the body take too long to work, researchers have modified them in the laboratory to create a fast-acting variant.
Dr Michael Entzeroth, senior vice-president of drug discovery at A*Star's Experimental Therapeutics Centre, said: 'This is a new therapeutic way to overcome drug resistance and treat patients who would otherwise be very difficult to treat.
'With defensins, scientists have found a new mechanism of action that is also a defensive strategy developed by the body.'
Prof Beuerman is hoping his centre's new antibiotics can treat eye infections rampant in Singapore. Our tropical climate is loved by bacteria, and the high number of contact lens users here are the most prone to developing eye infections. Up to 40 contact lens wearers seen by Singapore General Hospital in the past two years risked going blind after they contracted infections, said Dr Lim Li, senior consultant ophthalmologist at the Singapore National Eye Centre.
Two companies are already testing potential products on people. American biotech company PolyMedix is developing defensin-based antibiotics for heart and blood vessel diseases, while British drug maker Sinclair Pharma is testing another for acne. If the drugs make it past the testing phases, it will be three to five years before they reach the market.
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