Newly discovered RNA molecule could lead to new treatments in the war against ‘superbugs’ |
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a tiny RNA molecule that can potentially lead the way toward treatments against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Called PreS, the molecule enables a bacteria-eating virus known as a bacteriophage — or phage, for short — to take control of a bacterial cell and use it for its own growth, eventually destroying the bacterium.
“Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious global health threats of our time,” Dr. Sahar Melamed, head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Melamed lab, told The Times of Israel.
Understanding how phages operate can “aid scientists in furthering research and therapies that might help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” he said.
The peer-reviewed study, led by PhD student Aviezer Silverman, MSc student Raneem Nashef, and computational biologist Reut Wasserman from the Hebrew University, in collaboration with Prof. Ido Golding’s group from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, appeared on Thursday in the journal Molecular Cell.
The rise of antimicrobial resistance has become a global health challenge.
Around the world, these bacteria that defy antibiotics — commonly known as “superbugs” — were directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.
As early as 2013, a State Comptroller’s report found that some 5,000 Israelis were dying annually from infections........