To the rescue of old drugs

摘要

The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria has potentially drastic consequences for human health around the world. There is a pressing need for new antibiotics, or for further strategies to overcome antibiotic resistance - not only to ensure that we can continue to treat infectious diseases, but also to safeguard the practice of medical procedures such as organ transplants, chemotherapy and surgery, which are accompanied by an increased susceptibility to infections. One approach to combating resistance is to use combined treatments consisting of an antibiotic and a compound that potentiates the antibiotics activity by targeting bacterial resistance mechanisms. On page 503 of this issue, King et al. report that aspergillomaras-mine A, a naturally occurring fungal product, is a rapid and potent inhibitor of enzymes that confer antibiotic resistance on enterobacteria.