London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Scientists develop antibiotics against superbugs

Hong Kong scientists make major breakthrough in neutralizing drug-resistant superbugs.

Scientists in Hong Kong claim to have made a major medical breakthrough by developing a new family of antibiotics powerful enough to neutralize the superbugs that have spread worldwide and have been almost impossible to treat.

Bacteriologists at a university in Hong Kong claim they have developed a family of antibiotics powerful enough to neutralize multi-drug resistant superbugs, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

MRSA refers to a group of genetically distinct bacteria pervasive in hospitals, nursing homes and even inside trains and buses in cities worldwide causing several difficult-to-treat infections.

There has been a decades-long global effort to fight MRSA and the search for new antibiotics to stem its spread has shown no progress since the superbugs’ emergence as early as the mid-1980s. People with open wounds or weakened immune systems are at greater risks of infection.

Bacterial drug resistance – public spaces and healthcare centers across the globe are now crawling with superbugs like MRSA – has been declared one of the biggest public health threats by World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan, who also served as Hong Kong’s public health chief.

In 2018, Hong Kong reported 1,218 cases of community-associated MRSA infections, a seven-fold jump compared with 2007, the year the first case was found in the city.

Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) said at a recent press conference that the novel small molecules they had just developed, based on new chemical structure and an antimicrobial mechanism, would be different from those of existing antibiotics incapable of sterilizing items with MRSA.

They claimed their new drug candidates demonstrated effective capabilities of inhibiting bacterial growth with no toxicity to human cells or tissues in numerous lab experiments.

The development and trial of the new class of antimicrobial agents, by PolyU’s Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology in partnership with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is a potential breakthrough in the battle against MRSA.

“Our research is now at the end animal studies, conducting infectious model and pharmacokinetic observation and studies. These are the critical steps preceding clinical trials on humans for drug development,” said Dr Ma Cong, head of the research team.

“As a matter of fact, there are very few antibiotic-related studies among our peers abroad that are able to complete such a stage. Our findings so far are very promising … We believe further studies on these novel compounds will contribute to a new era of antibiotic discovery, contributing towards the fight against superbugs.”

Most antibiotics now in use function through disrupting the DNA synthesis or protein functions of harmful bacteria, while the new drug focuses on preventing the interaction between two proteins, NusB and NusE, which is crucial for synthesis of bacterial ribosomal ribonucleic acid and in turn bacterial cell proliferation.

The team developed a model based on the structure of the two proteins, and applied computer-aided screening to detect about 5,000 small molecule compounds with drug-like properties to act as inhibitors against protein interaction.

Some shortlisted compounds were then put to tests for antimicrobial effectiveness against different MRSA strains.

Test of the compounds on human lung and skin cells infected with MRSA indicated no significant toxicity. The fact that the two proteins exist only in bacteria and not in human cells has already addressed the toxicity concern, according to Dr Ma.

The research team has further structurally modified the compounds for optimization and named them “Nusbiarylins,” based on their target protein “NusB” and their “biaryl” structure.

Lab tests of Nusbiarylins against a panel of MRSA strains proved their consistent antibacterial effectiveness, much better than commonly used antibiotics including vancomycin, which is administered as the “last resort” antibiotic drug against superbugs in many Western countries.

Further pre-clinical studies on the in-vitro pharmacological properties of Nusbiarylins on human cells indicated that the compounds would not result in human blood cell breaking, an indication of being safe for injection, as well as excellent results in intestine absorption, meaning it is effective for oral taking.

The PolyU team won the “Global Innovation Award” at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo 2019 held in June in the United States.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×