Every medicine under development is always tested for side effects.
Sometimes it may turn out that the side effects of a new drug are more dangerous than the ailment that the drug is supposed to fight.
But in this case, everything turned out quite the opposite. Developed to treat Alzheimer's disease, a drug called PBT2 suddenly showed itself to be a very powerful antibiotic that even fought off superbugs.
The problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs has increasingly worried doctors and patients alike in recent years. Scientists with frightening regularity are identifying new strains of bacteria that even the most powerful modern antibiotics do not take.
While these strains are rare, what if one of them spreads like the flu? In response to this assumption, experts generally begin to paint completely apocalyptic pictures.
That is why the search for new antibiotics that would cope with superbugs is now one of the most important medical tasks. Researchers recently discovered a sponge in the northern ocean containing substances that kill superbugs. However, while she goes through various studies and it can take years.
While PBT2 is still considered an experimental drug, it has already undergone several important tests that have confirmed its effectiveness against Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases.
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It is believed that these diseases arise and progress due to the accumulation of heavy metals in the brain. PBT2 prevents metals from attacking brain cells, resulting in lower levels of heavy metals in the brain and relief of the patient's condition.
And recently, in the course of tests, scientists from the University of Queensland found that a side effect of PBT2 is its effect on bacteria, even very resistant bacteria, which are not taken by other antibiotics.
The news provides potential new hope for a 30-year-old and increasingly threatening superbug fight.
According to Professor Mark von Itzstein of Griffith University - one of the authors of the research report, if you do not find an affordable and powerful drug against superbugs, then by 2050, up to 10 million people a year will die from diseases caused by them.