Aminoglycosides are antibiotics effective against a wide range of bacteria including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Until now though, their mode of entry into bacteria has remained unknown. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur, working with teams from Inserm, the CNRS and Université Paris Cité, have recently demonstrated that aminoglycosides enter bacteria by using sugar transporters. In addition to this discovery, they have also successfully doubled the number of transporters, even in the most resistant Escherichia coli strains, thus improving antibiotics' penetration rate and efficacy.

Details of this breakthrough were published in Science Advances, with clinical trials anticipated in the near future.
 

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