Overcoming Antibiotic Resistance

In the U.S. alone, antibiotic resistance in disease-causing pathogens endangers millions of lives and costs over $2 billion each year. But recently, researchers have found a way to utilize a repurposed version of the gene-editing tool CRISPR to study how antibiotics act on bacteria, with the goal of improving existing antibiotics and even creating new ones.

CRISPR works by targeting a specific gene within the DNA sequence and cutting it in two so that a new gene can be inserted. The new version – called Mobile-CRISPRi – is not able to cut DNA but attaches to a particular gene and blocks other proteins from accessing it. As a result, the expression of that particular gene and the amount of protein it codes for are reduced. When applied to bacteria, the research showed that decreased amounts of antibiotic-specific proteins cause those bacteria to become sensitive to lower levels of the drugs.

All of this means that we now have a tool to study how antibiotics directly inhibit the growth of pathogens and, eventually, to overcome their resistance to drugs. The developers have offered the Mobile-CRISPRi tool to other researchers to allow study of a wider range of bacteria.