Lately, a "super bacteria",New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1), is detected in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Canada and other south Asian countries which is resistant to almost all antibiotics. The new "super bacteria" has made 170 people infected all over the world and at least 5 people killed in UK. There is the possibility for the variant genes of NDM-1 to sweep the globe.

Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIMM) has established rapidly the “Anti-NDM-1 Drug Research Team”. On 16th August, scientists from related disciplines attended the “Working Plan Layout Meeting on Anti-NDM-1 Drug Research” at SIMM and had discussions on research methods to develop Anti-NDM-1 drugs.SIMM will allocate human resources, material resources and strengths in various subjects to the research project on anti-superbug drug research to get breakthrough, especially in anti-superbug target identification and infectious mechanism study, set-up of anti-superbug drug screening model, design and screening of anti-superbug compounds and large scale synthesis of compounds.

Background information:

New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) is an enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of beta-lactam antibiotics. These include the antibiotics of the carbapenem family, which are a mainstay for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The most common bacteria that make this enzyme are Gram negative such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and most isolates with NDM-1 enzyme are resistant to almost all standard intravenous antibiotics.