Breakthrough in fight against superbugs as scientists discover exactly how they build up resistance to antibiotics

Breakthrough in fight against superbugs as scientists discover exactly how they build up resistance to antibiotics

Vital clues revealing how 'superbugs' build up resistance to antibiotics have been discovered.

Scientists think they have solved a 25-year-old question about how a family of proteins allow bacteria to resist the effects of certain antibiotic drugs. 

It is hoped the discovery by scientists at the University of Leeds could pave the way for new drugs to be developed against superbugs like MRSA. 

The discovery is being hailed as a breakthrough in the race to contain the rise of so-called superbugs that kill about 10,000 Britons each year.

The findings, published in the journal mBio, provide the first direct evidence of how the family of proteins 'protect' the bacterial ribosome, the protein makers in cells, from being blocked by antibiotics.

Ordinarily, the ribosome is an ideal target for antibiotics because living bacteria can't grow without it, but when bacteria produce ABC-F proteins many antibiotics no longer work.