Scientists found a sugar that may help fight superbugs

Researchers engineered an antibody that binds a bacterial sugar called pseudaminic acid and cleared a normally fatal multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infection in mice; the team plans to develop antibody treatments for clinical use over the next five years.

Researchers in Australia report a laboratory-made antibody that binds a bacterial sugar and triggers immune clearance of infection. The antibody targets pseudaminic acid, a sugar produced only by bacteria and used on their outer surface. In mouse experiments, the antibody cleared a normally fatal multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infection. The work is published in Nature Chemical Biology and was carried out by teams at the University of Sydney, WEHI, the University of Melbourne and the Peter Doherty Institute. Key points: - The antibody is designed to bind pseudaminic acid, a sugar found on many bacterial surfaces but not produced by human cells. - In mouse infection studies, the lab-created antibody cleared multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. - The authors plan to develop antibody treatments for clinical use over the next five years and report the results in Nature Chemical Biology. Summary: The study shows that targeting a bacteria-specific sugar can enable immune clearance of a multidrug-resistant pathogen in animal experiments. The research team intends to translate these findings into antibody treatments focused on multidrug-resistant A. baumannii over the coming five years. Clinical safety, effectiveness in people, and broader impacts will be determined in future studies.