Researchers in Marquette University’s Klingler College of Arts and Sciences have discovered a novel probiotic which can weaken the resistance of antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections, such as MRSA, by increasing its sensitivity to multiple antibiotics and inhibiting biofilm development in the human gut.
Dr. Krassimira Hristova, professor of biological sciences at Marquette, and her team identified a single probiotic strain—Bacillus subtilis 6D1—with potent ability to inhibit biofilm growth, disassemble mature biofilm and improve antibiotic sensitivity of staph infection biofilms by interfering with this pathogen’s own communication system.
According to the World Health Organization, antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections accounted for an estimated 700,000 deaths worldwide in 2019, a number that is expected to surpass 10 million by 2050 if immediate measures are not taken. In the United States alone, 2.5 million AMR infections resulted in an estimated annual economic cost of more than $55 billion, warranting the need for new pathogen control measures to help combat this global health crisis.
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