Australian scientists develop antibody approach to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Immune cells (cell boundaries in red and nuclei in blue) engulfing the bacteria seen in green. PIC COURTESY/Peter Doherty Institute

Australian scientists have created a promising new approach for fighting deadly bacteria that no longer respond to antibiotics.

The team designed antibodies that latch onto a sugar found only on bacterial cells, a discovery that could support a new class of immunotherapies.

The findings show that an antibody made in the laboratory was able to clear a normally fatal bacterial infection in mice.

It works by locking onto a unique bacterial sugar molecule called pseudaminic acid and signaling the immune system to destroy the invading pathogen.

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