Carbapenems are strong antibiotics used when other medicines don’t work against bacterial infections. But some bacteria have become resistant to them by producing an enzyme called VIM-2, which helps them survive the antibiotics. Unfortunately, there are no medicines yet that can stop this enzyme.
Our research found that bacteria with VIM-2 don’t grow well when zinc, an important mineral, is low—like in human blood or animal infections. We studied their genes and processes to learn how they use zinc and found that blocking certain systems weakens them, making it harder for them to grow.
We also discovered that VIM-2 damages the bacteria’s protective outer layer, which makes them easier to kill with the antibiotic azithromycin. In tests with mice, azithromycin worked well to treat infections caused by these resistant bacteria.
These findings show ways we can target weaknesses in resistant bacteria, giving hope for new treatments against infections that are hard to cure.
From:
Tu, M.M., Carfrae, L.A., Rachwalski, K. et al. Exploiting the fitness cost of metallo-β-lactamase expression can overcome antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens. Nat Microbiol 10, 53–65 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01883-8
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