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New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

rockefeller.edu

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Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#11

Post by kragen »

Newly discovered potential antibiotics are actually pretty common, and they would be critical to solving the antibiotic-resistance menace. But no major new families of antibiotics have been brought to market since about 01962, although a dozen or so families were discovered over the previous 20 years. (Or, maybe one new family was.) That was when drug regulation changed dramatically in the US with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefauver%E2%80%93Harris_Amendm..., for example requiring clinical trials to provide evidence that drugs were effective, rather than just safe. It's also when they started outlawing recreational drugs; the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs wasn't until 01961, and it didn't cover amphetamines, downers, or psychedelics.

Because so much of 20th-century drug research happened in the US (because the US had capitalism) the clinical-trials requirement and the Drug War there had an outsized effect, and other countries copied them afterwards.

One particular case that I studied was Zasloff's "magainin": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magainin which was denied licensing even though the clinical trials found that it was both safe and effective. The problem was that it wasn't more effective than the existing standard of care; it was only equally effective.

It seems certain that the Kefauver–Harris Drug Act has prevented innumerable cases of useless or harmful drugs from being marketed. But, looking at the history of drug development, it also seems clear that the rapid drug development in the decades up to 01962 virtually halted at that time, and the absence of the drugs that would have been discovered since then has surely killed many more people than the inadvertent use of harmful drugs ever could have.

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#12

Post by pfdietz »

The paper:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-025-02810-w

One of the antibiotics targets a protein that is also essential in mitochondria, so it's not a good candidate for a drug. The other targets bacterial cell membranes and showed no resistance developing, which seems more promising.

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#13

Post by fgfarben »

kragen wrote: post #11

Newly discovered potential antibiotics are actually pretty common, and they would be critical to solving the antibiotic-resistance menace. But no major new families of antibiotics have been brought to market since about 01962, although a dozen or so families were discovered over the previous 20 years. (Or, maybe one new family was.) That was when drug regulation changed dramatically in the US with https://en.wikipedi…

My pet idea is that Western societies should prescribe antibiotics at random to a different tiny fraction of the elderly population each month / year.

People who suffer from unexplained / untreatable diseases like arthritis or MS might get some relief, while there would be an added pressure on the pharma industry to innovate in antibiotic development by accelerating the loss of existing antibiotic efficacy through the evolution of resistance.

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#15

Post by throwup238 »

choilive wrote: post #9
rogerrogerr wrote: post #2

> hundreds of complete bacterial genomes never seen before Welllll that doesn’t sound like a great idea

There are millions on the lower bound of bacteria species we havn't identified, trillions on the upper bound. Unknown bacteria are literally everywhere, but the simple act of finding and sequencing them is nothing to be afraid of.

Also known as biological dark matter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_dark_matter

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#16

Post by kragen »

fgfarben wrote: post #13
kragen wrote: post #11

Newly discovered potential antibiotics are actually pretty common, and they would be critical to solving the antibiotic-resistance menace. But no major new families of antibiotics have been brought to market since about 01962, although a dozen or so families were discovered over the previous 20 years. (Or, maybe one new family was.) That was when drug regulation changed dramatically in the US with https://en.wikipedi…

My pet idea is that Western societies should prescribe antibiotics at random to a different tiny fraction of the elderly population each month / year. People who suffer from unexplained / untreatable diseases like arthritis or MS might get some relief, while there would be an added pressure on the pharma industry to innovate in antibiotic development by accelerating the loss of existing antibiotic efficacy through th…

It's a promising idea, but probably wouldn't help with drug discovery.

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#17

Post by ipaddr »

fgfarben wrote: post #13
kragen wrote: post #11

Newly discovered potential antibiotics are actually pretty common, and they would be critical to solving the antibiotic-resistance menace. But no major new families of antibiotics have been brought to market since about 01962, although a dozen or so families were discovered over the previous 20 years. (Or, maybe one new family was.) That was when drug regulation changed dramatically in the US with https://en.wikipedi…

My pet idea is that Western societies should prescribe antibiotics at random to a different tiny fraction of the elderly population each month / year. People who suffer from unexplained / untreatable diseases like arthritis or MS might get some relief, while there would be an added pressure on the pharma industry to innovate in antibiotic development by accelerating the loss of existing antibiotic efficacy through th…

Horrible idea antibiotics are not toys and have side effects. Don't use elderly people for experiments when they are the one group least able to handle this.

You want to cause current antibiotics to be less useful so pharma will invest more? Just allow generic versions.

If you want to pressure the pharma industry use laws.

Re: New bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, discovered in soil

#18

Post by pkaye »

DaveZale wrote: post #10

Look at the 1940s/1950s when some classic antibiotics were discovered. Pharma workers taking vacations overseas were asked to bring soil samples back to the lab. Great reading if you enjoy science history. https://asm.org/articles/2023/june/hunting-for-antibiotics-i...

Some of the immunosuppressant drugs were discovered from bacteria in soil including Tacrolimus and Sirolimus. And Cyclosporine and Mycophenolate came from a fungus in soil.

I have a kidney transplant and use two of these medications daily.

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