{"data":{"id":2056,"lang":"en","title":"Scientists Revive a Defeated Antibiotic's Power Against Drug-Resistant Superbugs","summary":"Scientists paired the antibiotic vancomycin with a newly discovered molecule that disables a bacterial defense enzyme, restoring its power against drug-resistant superbugs.","category":"science","category_label":"Science","published_at":"2026-07-23T06:01:50Z","updated_at":"2026-07-23T06:01:50Z","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2056-scientists-revive-a-defeated-antibiotic-s-power-against-drug-resistant-superbugs","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2056?lang=en","markdown_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2056.md?lang=en","image_url":"https://sciencedaily.com/images/1920/antibiotic-resistance-fighting-bacteria.webp","word_count":155,"reading_time_minutes":1,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260722032108.htm","domain":"sciencedaily.com"}],"translation":{"lang":"cs","id":2129,"title":"Vědci obnovili účinnost poraženého antibiotika proti multirezistentním superbakteriím","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2129-vedci-obnovili-ucinnost-porazeneho-antibiotika-proti-multirezistentnim","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2129?lang=cs"},"content":"Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Scripps Research have restored the effectiveness of vancomycin, one of medicine's last-resort antibiotics, by pairing it with a small molecule called pghi-4. The compound blocks a bacterial enzyme, secreted antigen A (SagA), that vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium relies on to fend off the drug.\n\nIn lab tests, adding pghi-4 stripped resistant bacteria of that defense, letting vancomycin kill strains that had previously survived treatment. Pghi-4 was first identified in 2020 from a screen of more than 150 compounds in Professor John Moses' lab at Cold Spring Harbor, working with Professor Howard Hang's team at Scripps.\n\nThe approach belongs to a growing category of antibiotic adjuvants: molecules that are not antibiotics themselves but restore the punch of existing drugs. Researchers say the same strategy could eventually help revive treatments for other resistant infections, including drug-resistant tuberculosis, offering a faster route to fighting superbugs than developing entirely new antibiotics from scratch."}}