Conference turris::scandia

219.0. "Swedish company develops new class of antibiotics" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Mon Jun 29 1987 11:11

 *NIB****                  Copyright 1986 XINHUA             SISCOM IP
    
            Swedish Scientists Develop 'Trojan Horse' Antibiotics
    
    Washington, June 26 (XINHUA) -- Swedish scientists have developed a new
    class of antibiotics to assist in treatment of infections caused by
    some of the most dangerous and resistant strains of bacteria, reported
    the New York times today. 
    
    The scientists have tested the new synthetic antibiotics in laboratory
    experiments against a large group of bacteria that cause many
    infections of the urinary tract and complicate surgery and hospital
    stays, it said. 
    
    The new antibiotics, developed by the scientists at the Astra
    Pharmaceutical Company in Sweden, are unusual because they have been
    designed to be absorbed by the bacteria and then to attack it from the
    inside. The new drugs, specifically designed to combat gramnegative
    bacteria, are a combination of two substances that stop the manufacture
    of lipopolysaccharide, a key component of the outer wall of
    gramnegative bacteria. 
    
    To sabotage that process, researchers had to find a way to get their
    drug inside the bacteria, which normally resist its entry. The Swedish
    scientists did it by attaching molecules of the drug to substances
    called peptides that are readily received by the cell and thus trick it
    into accepting the drug as well. Once the combination enters the
    bacteria, the natural breakdown of the peptides leads to release of the
    drug that retards an enzyme vital to the production of
    lipopolysaccharide, killing the microbes. 

                Received:  27-JUN-1987 03:23