Acinetobactor Baumannii

• Scientists used AI to discover a new antibiotic abaucin that can kill a deadly superbug Acinetobacter baumannii.

ABOUT ABAUCIN

• Abaucin is known to compromise the normal function of a protein called CCR2.
• It was originally developed to treat diabetes.
• Abaucin had “modest bactericidal activity against A. baumannii” in a medium containing other compounds that the bacteria resisted.

ABOUT ACINETOBACTER

• Acinetobacter is a group of bacteria commonly found in environment, like in soil and water.
• Most common cause of infections is Acinetobacter baumannii, which accounts for most Acinetobacter infections in humans.
• baumannii is a Gram-negative bacteria, which means it has a protective outer membrane that allows it to resist antibiotics.
  • It has been associated with hospital-acquired infections in India.
• It can cause infections in blood, urinary tract, and lungs, or in wounds.
• WHO has classified it as a critical threat among its “priority pathogens” – a group of bacteria families that pose greatest threat to human health.

SIGNIFICANCE

• This discovery is significant because of the rise of antimicrobial resistance and the struggle to identify new classes of antibiotics.
• It also clarifies how machines can help speed up the identification, discovery, and testing of new antibiotics.

ABOUT AMR

• It refers to the ability of microbes to evolve to resist the drugs that have been developed to beat them.
• As a result, many drugs, but especially antibiotics, have become less effective or ineffective against disease-causing bacteria, allowing the diseases to become more prevalent again.
• The global cost of antimicrobial resistance is expected to be $300 billion to more than $1 trillion every year.
• India is a ‘hotspot’ of antimicrobial resistance because of-
  • overuse of antibiotics, among people and animals,

improper disposal of pharmaceutical waste etc.