A University of Oklahoma team of chemists has developed a new antibiotic formulation to fight the sometimes deadly staph infection caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant infectious bacteria. The new drug to treat MRSA combines traditional Food and Drug Administration-approved antibiotics, such as methicillin, with the polymer BPEI. Charles Rice, principal investigator and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, OU College of Arts and Sciences, with team members Robert Cichewicz and Daniel Glatzhofer, both OU chemistry professors, has been able to invigorate older drugs from the penicillin family by combining them with BPEI. While this new formulation requires FDA approval, the approach restores efficacy to obsolete antibiotics.
OU chemists develop antibiotic formulation to fight MRSA, other bacteria
