Years have been spent in the search for a new antibiotic that could provide a strong defense against superbugs. It appears that one has now been found that could do the job.

Because of the overuse and improper use of antibiotics, a super-strain of bacteria has been developed. These are now called superbugs and they cannot be killed by most existing antibiotics.

The superbugs can become so powerful that they kill a lot of people every year and there is no way to stop the infections. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there are two million Americans who become infected annually and 23,000 die from them.

More and more superbugs are being found. There are so many already, that some researchers are warning that the world is going into a “post-biotic” era. This is when patients could die from something that was rather easily treatable just a few years ago, or it could mean that patients may die from simple medical surgeries from infection.

It has been known for many years that the soil contains many forms of bacteria. Scientists have tried for years to find more bacteria that could be used as an antibiotic from a pile of soil. Most of it, however, in fact, 99 percent of those bacteria cannot be grown in a lab.

A new method has recently been found which should provide opportunities to find new antibiotics. The bacteria are basically tricked into acting like it is still in the soil. This method has enabled researchers to begin testing on tens of thousands of bacteria that may become the next antibiotic.

One new form that has been discovered in soil is called a teixobactin. While still very new, the good news is that researchers have not yet found any bacteria that are resistant to it. Even various forms of Staphylococcus aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis are not resistant. It kills them all.

The teixobactin antibiotic goes to work by attacking the materials that make up the cell wall. This method of attack creates a situation where the bacteria will find it very difficult to build up some kind of resistance.

Tests performed on mice so far have yielded positive results. Besides killing the undesirable bacteria, it also had no side effects.
The threat of superbugs continues to grow. The number of deaths in the U.S. and in Europe is about 50,000 per year. By 2050, projections say that there could be as many as 10 million annually.

While teixobactin looks very promising, it will not be appearing on the market any time soon. Testing on humans is not projected to start for another two years. Then, if everything goes well, it would take about another five to six years before it reaches the market.