A New Antibiotic to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea

Scientists have discovered an entirely new antibiotic that may be useful against strains of gonorrhea bacteria that are resistant to most current antibiotics. It's called closthioamide. It was discovered in 2010, but it has taken until now to learn how to produce it in large enough quantities to be useful.

To date, closthioamide has only been tested in the laboratory on samples of gonorrhea bacteria known to be resistant to most antibiotics. It worked on nearly all of the samples. The next steps will be to try it on animals (to demonstrate its safety) and eventually on humans (to reaffirm its safety and prove that it can cure gonorrhea infections in patients). If all goes well, some day closthioamide may be a new weapon in the arsenal against gonorrhea and other bacterial infections - at least until the bacteria develop resistance to it!