IBM Researchers Develop Drug to Combat MRSA

Researchers at International Business Machines Corp. have developed a nanoparticle designed to target the potentially fatal Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The deadly infection accounts for about 90,000 serious infections and 18,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MRSA is known as a “superbug” that frequently survives treatment with many common types of antibiotics, including methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, and oxacillin. IBM’s researchers researchers, along with scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore, said their nanoparticle can target and destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria including MRSA without affecting healthy cells.

The nanoparticles are reportedly 50,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair that can obliterate the cell walls of drug-resistant bacteria. The structures then degrade, leaving no residue, according to a study describing the work in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Researchers said that nanoparticles have a specific electrical charge that draws them to the oppositely charged bacteria. In the process, they completely avoid damaging the red blood cells where the microbes are located.

IBM is currently in talks with pharmaceutical companies to prepare the particles for human testing.

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