How antibiotics could fight superbugs: Canadian scientists make key discovery – CTV
March 26, 2025
For the first time in decades, researchers have found a new class of antibiotics that could effectively fight superbugs, which are some of the planet’s most drug-resistant bacteria.
The discovery of antibiotic-producing bacteria in soil from a backyard was the first step in what could be the development of new antimicrobial medicines with the potential to cure life-threatening conditions, from pneumonia to urinary tract infections, according to researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who conducted a study published in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.
They found a strain of bacteria, called Paenibacillus, produced a new class of antibiotics, a chemical called lariocidin. Antibiotics are medicines that treat or prevent bacterial infections by killing bacteria or stopping them from reproducing.
Lariocidin is effective against multidrug-resistant bacteria that pose a significant threat to society, Manoj Jangra, a postdoctoral fellow at the McMaster University lab that made the discovery, said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Tuesday.
The findings come after the World Health Organization in 2023 flagged antimicrobial resistance as one of the top global public threats.
