Investigators working to stem the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have taken a major step in their efforts to develop new treatments. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have identified a novel mechanism that the hard-to-treat superbug called vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) uses to fend off the key front-line antibiotic daptomycin. VRE often affects critically ill patients.
While antibiotics give doctors the ability to treat bacterial infections, bacteria have evolved mechanisms of resistance that can make those antibiotics ineffective against the most aggressive superbugs. Thousands of people succumb to superbug-related infections worldwide annually and superbugs account for $20 billion in excess health care costs in the United States each year.
Read the full University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston article HERE.
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