How Molecular 'Drills' Can Help Combat Superbugs

In a breakthrough for global disease control, a team of researchers has developed molecular "drills" designed to combat deadly superbugs. The motorised molecules are activated by light and seek out highly antibiotic resistant bacteria. Once they've homed in on their targets, the molecules drill through the bacteria and kill them in a matter of minutes.

This allows drugs to break through bacterial barriers and attack diseases and infections that have previously resisted treatment. Looking forward, the team predict molecular drills could be used to treat bacterial infections and topical skin diseases, as well as ailments in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract.

Preparing for the superbug crisis

Working from Rice University in Houston, Texas A&M University, Biola University in California and Durham University in the UK, the researchers discovered that motorised molecules have the capacity to target and kill antibiotic-resistant microbes.

"These superbugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050, way overtaking cancer," says James Tour, a chemist at Rice University. "These are nightmare bacteria; they don't respond to anything."

Breaking down bacterial resistance barriers

The results were published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, with Tour explaining how the motorised molecules burrow through bacterial walls, completing up to 3 million rotations per second. This allows them to break down defences the bacterium have developed against antibiotics. According to the ACS Nano article, the molecular drills were able to kill Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria in minutes.

"Bacteria don't just have a lipid bilayer," says Tour. "They have two bilayers and proteins with sugars that interlink them, so things don't normally get through these very robust cell walls. That's why these bacteria are so hard to kill. But they have no way to defend against a machine like these molecular drills, since this is a mechanical action and not a chemical effect."

Heightening susceptibility to antibiotics

The motorised molecules were also able to increase the effectiveness of an antibacterial drug called meropenem, which Klebsiella pneumoniae had developed resistance to.

"Sometimes, when the bacteria figures out a drug, it doesn't let it in," adds Tour. "Other times, bacteria defeat the drug by letting it in and deactivating it. Now we can get it through the cell wall. This can breathe new life into ineffective antibiotics by using them in combination with the molecular drills."

When used alone on bacterial colonies, the motorised molecules killed up to 17% of cells. Alongside meropenem, they were able to destroy 65%. After tweaking the intensity of motorised molecules and antibiotics, the team were able to kill an impressive 94% of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. From the skin and lungs to the intestines and GI tract, the researchers assert that molecular drills can be used anywhere that can be targeted with a light source.

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