Then they cloned some of the genes into E. The survey yielded 69 additional possible tetracycline-destructase genes. To find out, Dantas and first author Andrew Gasparrini, PhD – then a graduate student in Dantas’ lab – screened 53 soil, 176 human stool, two animal feces, and 13 latrine samples for genes similar to the 10 they’d already found.
These genes code for proteins the researchers dubbed tetracycline destructases.īut they didn’t know how widespread such genes were. In 2015, Dantas, also a professor of biomedical engineering, and Timothy Wencewicz, PhD, an associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, discovered 10 different genes that each gave bacteria the ability to dice up the toxic part of the tetracycline molecule, thereby inactivating the drug. It’s no longer a theoretical risk that this will be a problem in the clinic. The fact that we were able to find them so rapidly tells me that these genes are more widespread than we thought. “Once we started looking for these genes in clinical samples, we found them immediately. “We first found tetracycline-destroying genes five years ago in harmless environmental bacteria, and we said at the time that there was a risk the genes could get into bacteria that cause disease, leading to infections that would be very difficult to treat,” said co-senior author Gautam Dantas, PhD, a professor of pathology and immunology and of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. The findings, available online in Communications Biology, indicate an emerging threat to one of the most widely used classes of antibiotics - but also a promising way to protect against that threat. When the chemical compound was given in combination with tetracyclines as part of the new study, the antibiotics’ lethal effects were restored. However, the researchers have created a chemical compound that shields tetracyclines from destruction. Some of these genes confer the power to destroy all tetracyclines, including the latest generation of these antibiotics.
Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found that genes representing yet another method of resistance are widespread in bacteria that live in the soil and on people. But a new study from researchers at Washington University in St. The latest generation of tetracyclines – a class of powerful, first-line antibiotics – was designed to thwart the two most common ways bacteria resist such drugs.
Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that genes that confer the power to destroy tetracyclines are widespread in bacteria that live in the soil and on people. Researchers at Washington University in St. Shown above are two different 3D views of TetX7 (green), a tetracycline-destroying enzyme that causes resistance to all tetracycline antibiotics (the small multicolored molecule in the center). News Release Antibiotic-destroying genes widespread in bacteria in soil and on peopleĬhemical compound restores tetracycline's effectiveness by blocking bacterial resistance