A research team led by Prof. Hongzhe Sun reveals an antirheumatic metallodrug can resurrect “last-resort” antibiotics to kill multi-drug resistant superbugs

A research team led by Professor Hongzhe SUN, Chair Professor from the Research Division for Chemistry, Faculty of Science, in collaboration with Dr Pak-Leung HO, Director of the HKU Carol Yu Centre for Infection from the Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) discovers that by repurposing an antirheumatic gold drug, auranofin (AUR), "last-resort" antibiotics can be resensitized for treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant superbugs including bloodstream infections, pneumonia and wound infections.

The findings provide insights into development of inorganic pharmaceutics and new therapeutic approach for superbug infections. The ground-breaking findings on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are now published in a leading multidisciplinary science journal, Nature Communications and a related patent has been filed in the US.

For background and key findings, please find the details in https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_21873.html.  News reports in local media can be found here.