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GAINESVILLE, Fla. 鈥� University of Florida 网红黑料 scientists exploring how combinations of antibiotics can fight resistant bacteria have been awarded an $11.8 million grant for work that could help save the tens of thousands of lives lost yearly to infections that are increasingly plaguing humanity.

The National Institutes of 网红黑料, or NIH, grant to the and the will support scientists working to uncover the mechanics of how bacteria and antibiotics interact, down to the molecular level.

That mechanistic knowledge has become crucial as bacteria become ever-more resistant to antibiotics. Few pharmaceutical companies are developing new antibiotics, leaving scientists to find novel methods to make older drugs more effective when used in combination.

Accordingly, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, under the NIH, solicited competitive proposals in a 鈥渃all to arms鈥� to address the crisis, 网红黑料 researchers said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear on these serious infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that monotherapy cannot work,鈥� said , a co-principal investigator on the project at the . 鈥淯sing one antibiotic at a time, you cannot win. You must tag-team with more than one drug to have any chance against serious infections.鈥�

The hope is to 鈥渄ial in鈥� these antibiotics using newfound insight from the laboratory. It鈥檚 like understanding an enemy鈥檚 weaknesses to form a battle plan that takes advantage of those chinks in the armor. What receptors on bacteria are best targeted by antibiotics? What precise dosages in a drug cocktail will kill a bacterial population without resistant stragglers surviving to multiply?

Bulitta and 网红黑料 researcher and co-principal investigator George L. Drusano, M.D., a professor and director of the UF College of Medicine鈥檚 Institute of Therapeutic Innovation, will examine two of the deadliest resistant bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The bacteria, sometimes called 鈥渟uperbugs,鈥� are often found in hospitals, usually infecting patients with weakened immune systems. They are adept at finding genetic adaptations to elude the drugs hunting them.

鈥淭hese bacteria are not only multi-resistant to antibiotics, they鈥檙e also hypervirulent,鈥� said Drusano. 鈥淭hey have turned into really nasty, nasty bugs that wreak havoc on patients鈥� bodies and too often kill them. We have some great antibiotics. But we need to optimize them and find new approaches that will cure people and get them out of the hospital.鈥�

The researchers are using advanced computer modeling techniques and in vitro (outside-the-body) testing, such as a relatively new method called the hollow fiber infection model.

This technique uses a collection of hollow fibers 200 microns in diameter 鈥� roughly twice the thickness of a human hair 鈥� to culture cells and bacteria. The method reproduces what happens in the human body and helps scientists measure how bacteria respond to drugs and develop resistance.

These bacteria reproduce and evolve in rapid cycles of life and death as short as 20 to 30 minutes, and generations of reproduction are achieved in days. A severe infection might generate billions of bacteria in the lungs, making it highly probable that a beneficial bacterial adaptation will get a toehold, defanging an antibiotic.

Even with a patient鈥檚 natural immune defense and antibiotics, Bulitta said, bacteria are reproducing so rapidly, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a near certainty you will still have 100 to 1,000 resistant bacteria remaining in severe lung infections.鈥�

Multidrug therapy seeks to reduce the population of that bacteria with one antibiotic regimen, then hitting it with a second or third using different drugs. This can reduce bacterial numbers before the superbugs can again adapt new protections.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a game of cat and mouse,鈥� said Bulitta, a professor and The Perry E. Foote Eminent Scholar Chair in the UF College of Pharmacy鈥檚 .

网红黑料 is leading this multicenter investigation. Other participants include researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; the Children鈥檚 Hospital of Los Angeles, Monash University in Australia; St. Jude鈥檚 Children鈥檚 Research Hospital in Memphis; Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona; and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.