BATON ROUGE – An LSU-led research team is developing a new class of antibiotics capable of bypassing the defenses of drug-resistant bacteria, which otherwise make it difficult to cure chronic infections.

Antibiotics work by disrupting cellular processes and structures – stopping bacteria from making proteins, rupturing cell walls, even damaging their DNA. Chronic infections are notoriously hard to cure because the bacteria are shielded by a layer of proteins, sugars and extracellular DNA called biofilms. The antibiotics currently in use cannot pierce these biofilms, but LSU Chemistry Professor Mario Rivera and his research team have invented a way to defeat the bacteria’s defenses.

“Our new class of antibiotics kill the bacteria by blocking their access to iron, a vital nutrient,” Rivera said. “Without iron, the bacteria can’t grow. They stagnate and die, allowing the chronic infections to begin healing.”

Biofilm bacteria use a protein called bacterioferritin (BfrB) to store iron. Another protein called ferredoxin (Bfd) helps ferry the stored iron to where the bacterial cell can use it. The research team’s antibiotics disrupt this process, stopping Bfd from binding to BfrB. The iron remains irreversibly locked inside BfrB. Starved of iron, the biofilm bacteria stop growing. Eventually, they die.

The research team’s discovery could be extremely valuable. Each year, an estimated 1.6 million U.S. residents develop foot ulcers associated with diabetes. These ulcers frequently lead to chronic biofilm infections that result in amputation. The nation spends more than $10 billion each year to treat foot ulcers associated with diabetes.

“Around 14% of Louisiana residents have diabetes. That’s one of the highest rates in the nation, and treatments cost the state more than $4 billion a year,” said Robert Twilley, LSU vice president of research and economic development. “Finding solutions to our state’s health challenges is one of the goals of our Scholarship First Agenda, and this new class of antibiotics represents a major leap forward.”

The new class of antibiotics’ unique approach may allow them to address a major health issue: infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria. The World Health Organization says the rapid increase in drug-resistant bacteria is an ever-worsening crisis, and there is an enormous need for new antibiotics to combat the most dangerous bacteria.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that drug-resistant bacterial infections cost the U.S. over $4.6 billion a year in health care and lost productivity.

Rivera’s research is supported by the National Institutes of Health. In late 2021, he  received a five-year $3.69 million NIH R01 grant to develop a treatment for biofilm bacteria. Rivera worked with the LSU Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization (ITC) to patent the discovery.

“We’re excited about helping our researchers pursue the commercial opportunities for this revolutionary technology,” said Daniel Felch, LSU ITC senior commercialization officer.

About LSU’s Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization

LSU’s Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization (ITC) protects and commercializes LSU’s intellectual property. The office focuses on transferring early-stage inventions and works into the marketplace for the greater benefit of society. ITC also handles federal invention reporting, which allows LSU to receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federally funded research, and processes confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements and other agreements related to intellectual property.

About the LSU Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development

LSU Innovation unites the university’s innovation and commercialization resources under one office, maximizing LSU's impact on the intellectual, economic and social development of Louisiana and beyond. LSU Innovation is focused on establishing, developing and growing technology-based startup companies. LSU Innovation oversees LSU Innovation Park, a 200-acre business incubator that fosters early-stage tech companies, and the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, which streamlines the process of evaluating, protecting and licensing intellectual property created by LSU researchers. LSU Innovation serves as the host organization for the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) network, which oversees all SBDC services across the state as well as the LSU SBDC, which provides free consulting services to small businesses across the state. LSU Innovation helps Louisiana technology companies apply for seed funding through the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grant programs. LSU Innovation educates faculty, students and the community on entrepreneurial principles through the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, which trains innovators to consider the market opportunities for pressing scientific questions, leading to increased funding from state and federal grant programs as well as industry partners and licensees.