Space experiments reveal new way to combat drug-resistant superbugs, scientists say

Research conducted partially aboard the International Space Station (ISS) suggests that “microgravity” could help scientists combat drug-resistant superbugs, according to a report from SWNS.

Microgravity is the condition in which people or objects appear weightless, NASA says.

Experiments conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison show that viruses and bacteria behave differently under near-weightless conditions. In space, they develop genetic changes not normally seen on Earth.

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The study’s lead author, Dr. Phil Huss, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that interactions between viruses that infect bacteria (known as phages) and their hosts play an “integral” role in the functioning of microbial ecosystems, according to the SWSN report.

Viruses that infect bacteria could still infect E. coli in space. However, the way those infections developed was different from what is typically seen on Earth.

Bacteria and phages are often described as locked in an evolutionary arms race, Huss said, with each side constantly adapting to outperform the other.

“Microgravity is not just a slower or noisier version of Earth, it is a different physical and evolutionary environment,” researcher Srivatsan Raman, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at the university, told News Digital.

“Even in a very simple system of phages and bacteria, microgravity altered the dynamics of infection and pushed both organisms down different evolutionary paths,” he added.

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While these interactions between bacteria and phages have been well studied on Earth, few studies have examined them in space, where they can lead to different results.

For the study, Huss and his colleagues compared two sets of E. coli samples infected with a phage known as T7. One set was incubated on Earth, while the other was grown aboard the ISS.

The team found that after an initial slowdown, the T7 phage successfully infected E. coli in space. Genetic analysis later revealed clear differences in how both the bacteria and the virus mutated in space compared to how they behaved on Earth, according to the report.

Huss said phages grown aboard the space station developed mutations that could improve their ability to infect bacteria or bind to bacterial cells. At the same time, E. coli grown in space developed mutations that could help it resist infections and survive better in near-weightless conditions.

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Raman said some of the findings were unexpected. In particular, he noted, microgravity caused mutations in parts of the phage genome that are not well understood and rarely seen in ground-based experiments.

The researchers then used a technique called deep mutational scanning, a method that tracks how genetic changes affect function, to examine changes in the T7 receptor-binding protein, which plays a key role in infection.

Additional experiments on Earth linked those changes to greater efficacy against E. coli strains that are normally resistant to T7.

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“Equally surprising was that phages formed by microgravity could be more effective against terrestrial bacterial pathogens when brought back to Earth,” Raman told News Digital.

“That result suggests that microgravity can reveal combinations of mutations that are difficult to access through standard laboratory evolution, but [are] “It’s still very relevant for real-world applications.”

“Microgravity is not just a slower or noisier version of Earth, it is a different physical and evolutionary environment.”

Huss said the findings could help address antibiotic-resistant infections, including urinary tract infections, which have increased in recent years.

“By studying such space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens on Earth,” Huss told SWNS.

Limitations of the study

“Experiments on the ISS are limited by small samples, fixed hardware and programming limitations,” Raman noted. “Samples also experience freezing and long storage times, which can complicate interpretation.”

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He added that the research has broader implications.

“The study of microbes in space is not just about space biology,” Raman said. “These experiments may uncover new aspects of viral infection and microbial evolution that directly feed back into Earth’s problems, including antimicrobial resistance and phage therapy.”

He added that the space should be treated as a discovery environment and not a routine testing platform. The most effective approach, according to Raman, is to identify useful patterns and mutations in space and then carefully study them in Earth systems.

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The scientists also noted that the findings highlight how microbial ecosystems, such as those associated with humans, could change during long space missions.

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“Understanding and anticipating those changes will be essential as space travel becomes longer, more routine, and more biologically complex,” Raman said.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology.