Antibiotic resistance has a gossipy trick — a bacterium passes on its resistance secrets to others, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends and so on. But researchers at University of California-San Diego have found a way to use their gossip chain-mail skills against them.
The research team developed a way of tricking bacteria into fixing themselves.
The solution is a roaming piece of DNA called pPro-MobV. Bacteria happily accept it because it appears as normal, shared DNA. Once inside, it goes to work.
Within the DNA is a CRISPR system that hunts down resistance genes and snips them. As the DNA is swapped, snipping continues.
The results published in Nature journal npj Antimicrobials and Resistance were dramatic, showing a reduction in antibiotic resistant bacteria by up to 100,000 times.
It’s like disarming, rather than killing, an opponent.
Notably, this comes with a delete option to remove the CRISPR, leaving no traces behind, which is imperative if the method is ever used in a non-lab environment.
This could wipe out resistance genes in such environments as hospital pipes and wastewater systems where superbugs can flourish.
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