SMART
Intranet Share Print

SMART office will be closed today as the PSI reading is >300. For enquiries, please email the respective person. SMART office will be open tomorrow should the PSI reading be below 300.

  • Home
  • About SMART
    • About SMART
    • Board Members
    • Organisation Chart
  • Research
    • AMR
      • About AMR
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • AMR Careers
      • AMR Website
    • CAMP
    • DiSTAP
      • About DiSTAP
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • DiSTAP Careers
      • DiSTAP Website
    • FM
      • About FM
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • FM Careers
      • FM Website
    • LEES
      • About LEES
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • LEES Careers
      • LEES Website
    • BioSyM
      • About BioSyM
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • BioSyM Careers
      • BioSyM Website
    • CENSAM
      • About CENSAM
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • CENSAM Careers
      • CENSAM Website
    • ID
      • About ID
      • Research Projects
      • Directory
      • ID Careers
      • ID Website
  • Innovation Centre
    • About SMART Innovation Centre
    • Our Program
      • Innovation 2.0
      • STDR Stream 2
      • I2Start
      • Central Gap Funding
    • Which Program is Best For You
    • Training & Mentoring
    • Innovation Centre Events
      • Archived Events
    • Intellectual Property Application
  • Fellowships
    • Undergraduate (SMURF)
      • Apply for SMURF Fellowship
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
  • Careers
    • Why SMART?
    • Work in Singapore
    • Career Opportunities
      • Job Application
    • Student Jobs
  • Resources
    • Housing for Faculty, Postdocs and Students visiting the SMART Centre
    • Housing for Postdocs and Students visiting MIT
    • Other Matters for Visiting Singapore and the USA
  • Directory
    • SMART Addresses
    • Emergency Contacts
    • People Directory
banner
banner
banner
banner
News & Events
  • News
  • Events
  • Home
  • News & Events
  • News

SMART Researchers Find New Way to Make Bacteria More Sensitive to Antibiotics

12 August 2020
News Release/Fact Sheet
SMART AMR study finds that exposing bacteria to hydrogen sulfide can increase antimicrobial sensitivity in bacteria that do not produce H2S [Credits: Jessie Choo Hui Ling, SMART AMR]
Study finds that exposing bacteria to hydrogen sulfide can increase antimicrobial sensitivity in bacteria that do not produce H2S
  • H2S is a natural defence against antibiotics in some bacteria but can cause increased sensitivity to antibiotics in bacteria that do not produce it
  • The agent can even reverse resistance developed by such bacteria to common antibiotics like gentamicin
  • First study to report H2S induced antibiotic sensitisation and resistance reversion

Researchers from Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have discovered a new way to reverse antibiotic resistance in some bacteria using hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

Growing antimicrobial resistance is a major threat for the world with a projected 10 million deaths each year by 2050 if no action is taken. The World Health Organisation also warns that by 2030, drug-resistant diseases could force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty and cause catastrophic damage to the world economy.

In most bacteria studied, the production of endogenous H2S has been shown to cause antibiotic tolerance, so H2S has been speculated as a universal defence mechanism in bacteria against antibiotics.

A team at SMART’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) tested that theory by adding H2S releasing compounds to Acinetobacter baumannii – a pathogenic bacteria that does not produce H2S on its own. They found that rather than causing antibiotic tolerance, exogenous H2S sensitised the A. baumannii to multiple antibiotic classes. It was even able to reverse acquired resistance in A. baumannii to gentamicin, a very common antibiotic used to treat several types of infections.

The results of their study, supported by the Singapore National Medical Research Council’s Young Investigator Grant, are discussed in a paper titled “Hydrogen sulfide sensitises Acinetobacter baumannii to killing by antibiotics” published in the prestigious journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

“Until now, hydrogen sulfide was regarded as a universal bacterial defense against antibiotics,” says Dr Wilfried Moreira, the corresponding author of the paper and Principal Investigator at SMART’s AMR IRG. “This is a very exciting discovery because we are the first to show that H2S can, in fact, improve sensitivity to antibiotics and even reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria that do not naturally produce the agent.”

While the study focused on the effects of exogenous H2S on A. baumannii, the scientists believe the results will be mimicked in all bacteria that do not naturally produce H2S.

“Acinetobacter baumannii is a critically important antibiotic-resistant pathogen that poses a huge threat to human health,” says Say Yong Ng, lead author of the paper and Laboratory Technologist at SMART AMR. “Our research has found a way to make the deadly bacteria and others like it more sensitive to antibiotics, and can provide a breakthrough in treating many drug-resistant infections.”

The team plans to conduct further studies to validate these exciting findings in pre-clinical models of infection, as well as extending them to other bacteria that do not produce H2S.

Back to Top
Last Updated 24/02/2023 Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Open Access Articles | Sitemap | 2016 All Rights Reserved. Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Last Updated 24/02/2023