A new compound which visualises and kills antibiotic resistant superbugs has been discovered by scientists at the University of Sheffield and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).

The team, led by Professor Jim Thomas, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Chemistry, is testing new compounds developed by his PhD student Kirsty Smitten on antibiotic resistant gram-negative bacteria, including pathogenic E. coli.

Gram-negative bacteria strains can cause infections including pneumonia, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections. They are difficult to treat as the cell wall of the bacteria prevents drugs from getting into the microbe.

Antimicrobial resistance is already responsible for 25,000 deaths in the EU each year, and unless this rapidly emerging threat is addressed, it's estimated by 2050 more than 10 million people could die every year due to antibiotic resistant infections.

Doctors have not had a new treatment for gram-negative bacteria in the last 50 years, and no potential drugs have entered clinical trials since 2010.

The new drug compound has a range of exciting opportunities. As Professor Jim Thomas explains: "As the compound is luminescent it glows when exposed to light. This means the uptake and effect on bacteria can be followed by the advanced microscope techniques available at RAL.

"This breakthrough could lead to vital new treatments to life-threatening superbugs and the growing risk posed by antimicrobial resistance."

The studies at Sheffield and RAL have shown the compound seems to have several modes of action, making it more difficult for resistance to emerge in the bacteria. The next step of the research will be to test it against other multi-resistant bacteria.

In a recent report on antimicrobial resistant pathogens, the World Health Organisation put several gram-negative bacteria at the top of its list, stating that new treatments for these bacteria were 'Priority 1 Critical' because they cause infections with high death rates, are rapidly becoming resistant to all present treatments and are often picked up in hospitals.

The research, published in the journal ACS Nano, describes the new compound which kills gram-negative E. coli, including a multidrug resistant pathogen said to be responsible for millions of antibiotic resistant infections worldwide annually.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190528095213.htm

PASADENA, Calif. — With congressional funding and industry support, nuclear thermal propulsion technology is making progress for potential use on future NASA deep space missions, although how it fits into the agency's exploration architectures remains uncertain.

The House Appropriations Committee approved May 22 a commerce, justice and science (CJS) appropriations bill that offers $22.3 billion for NASA. That funding includes $125 million for nuclear thermal propulsion development within the agency's space technology program, compared to an administration request for no funding.

"The bill's investment in nuclear thermal propulsion is critical as NASA works towards the design of a flight demonstration by 2024," said Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), ranking member of the CJS appropriations subcommittee, during that subcommittee's markup of the bill May 17. He offered similar comments in support of that project at the full committee markup.

The $125 million comes on top of $100 million that Congress provided in 2019, of which $70 million was earmarked for a flight demonstration by 2024. The report accompanying the House bill makes no mention of a 2024 date for a flight demonstration, but does call on NASA to develop "a multi-year plan that enables a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration, including the timeline associated with the space demonstration, and a description of future missions and propulsion and power systems enabled by this capability."

Nuclear thermal propulsion, where a fission reactor heats propellants like hydrogen that are then accelerated through a nozzle, holds the potential of reducing travel times for deep space missions, such as to Mars. While studied early in the Space Age, NASA programs in nuclear thermal propulsion were cancelled by the early 1970s and are only now being revisited.

The concept has support in Congress as well as the White House. "As we continue to push farther into our solar system, we'll need innovative new propulsion systems to get us there, including nuclear power," Vice President Mike Pence said in a March 26 speech at a National Space Council meeting in Huntsville, Alabama.

That renewed work in nuclear thermal propulsion is being led by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, which Pence alluded to in his remarks. "And the president and I know there's no place on Earth better equipped to lead the world in pioneering these new propulsion technologies than Rocket City, U.S.A."

Some outside NASA also say development of nuclear thermal propulsion is important. "Nuclear propulsion is key to exploiting our capabilities beyond low Earth orbit," said Jeff Thornburg, chief executive and president of propulsion company Interstellar Technologies and a former propulsion executive with SpaceX and Stratolaunch.

Speaking on a panel at the Space Tech Expo here May 22, he supported additional work on that technology. "There's some key technology development that really needs to happen beyond the current state of the art," he said. That technology, coupled with electric propulsion, "are the future of how we're going to facilitate that expansion."

https://www.space.com/nuclear-thermal-space-propulsion-momentum-grows.html