University of Portsmouth researchers find potential new weapon against deadly superbugs

They found that a naturally-occurring compound found in trees is effective against superbugs – strains of bacteria which have developed resistance to the antibiotics usually used to treat its infections.

A university spokesman said: ‘Antimicrobial resistance has become one of the greatest threats to public health globally.

‘It occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making it difficult to treat infection.

‘Because of this, there is a pressing need for the development of new antimicrobial drugs to combat infections.’

Superbugs cause 2.8m infections each year, including sepsis, pneumonia, and urinary-tract infections. Of these infections, 35,000 result in death.

Dr Robert Baldock of Portsmouth’s school of pharmacy and biomedical sciences said: ‘Using bacterial killing experiments, we found that hydroquinine was able to kill several microorganisms including the common multidrug-resistant pathogen pseudomonas aeruginosa.’

Pseudomonas aeruginosa carries high mortality rates of 30-50 per cent.

Dr Baldock added: ‘By studying this compound further, our hope is that it may in future offer another line of treatment in combating bacterial infections.’

The Portsmouth team collaborated with scientists from Naresuan and Pibulsongkram Rajabhat Universities in Thailand.

Dr Jirapas Jongjitwimol from Naresuan said ‘Our future research aims to uncover the molecular target of hydroquinine.

‘This would help our understanding of how the compound works against pathogenic bacteria and how it could potentially be used in a clinical setting.’