Antibiotic resistance: the Institut Pasteur's microbiological expertise and unique collection of resistant strains contribute to research on group A streptogramins

The Institut Pasteur's outstanding collection of bacterial strains has played a key role in research at the University of California. The collection was used in a study exploring how the modification of group A streptogramins, a class of antibiotics discovered and isolated in France in the 1960s, can restore their efficacy by enabling them to overcome the resistance mechanisms employed by the bacteria they are intended to destroy. The Institut Pasteur's supporting role in this study highlights the value of its unique collection of resistant strains and shows how useful it can be in this type of research. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the three priority scientific areas in the Institut Pasteur's 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.

In recent years virtually no new antibiotics have been developed; since the 1970s, the number of therapeutic classes available has remained around fifteen. "Antibiotics are derived from natural products made by microorganisms in the soil (such as fungi or filamentous bacteria like Streptomyces), which are used by humans because they are active against pathogenic bacteria and are not toxic for human or animal cells, so they are well tolerated," explains Olivier Chesneau, a scientist working for the Institut Pasteur Collection (CIP), created in 1891 to preserve bacterial strains. The CIP currently represents a wealth of biodiversity, with more than 25,000 bacterial strains belonging to 5,500 different species.

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