Dehradun | In a significant step forward in the global fight against antibiotic resistance, IIT-Roorkee researchers have developed a new drug candidate, Compound 3b, that can restore the effectiveness of a potent antibiotic against deadly drug-resistant bacteria, an official release said.

Led by Ranjana Pathania from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, an IIT Roorkee team including Mangal Singh and Perwez Bakht, along with Norwegian collaborator Annette Bayer and her team from UiT Tromso, has designed a novel molecule that works alongside the antibiotic Meropenem to treat infections caused by KPC-2-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, a superbug listed among the World Health Organization's top-priority threats, the release said.

"This breakthrough offers a promising solution to one of the world's most urgent health challenges -- antimicrobial resistance. Our compound neutralises the resistance mechanism, showing strong therapeutic results in preclinical models," Pathania, the principal investigator of the study, said.

The molecule belongs to a class of β-lactamase inhibitor drugs that prevents bacterial enzymes from breaking down life-saving antibiotics.

Compound 3b is highly specific, safe to human cells, and works synergistically with Meropenem to kill resistant bacteria, the release said, adding that lab and animal tests significantly reduced bacterial infection in the lungs.