New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase: a weapon for the newly emerging drug-resistant bacteria

The world has seen the emergence of many micro-organisms in the recent past, which can curb human population with their newly built genetic make-up. The latest addition to this list of panic creating organisms is, bacteria encoding the gene for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1). NDM-1 is an enzyme that can hydrolyze and inactivate carbapenems, which are used as a last resort for the treatment of multi-resistant bacterial infections. Names of these bacteria were not found in the medical literature before December 2009, because of which it can take the credit of becoming a powerful emerging bacteria, which are difficult to treat. Besides Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, other bacterial strains have also expressed the gene for NDM-1, which are detected in many countries.