“Superbugs”—have been identified by the World Health Organization as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.” At Vyv, we are confident that our technology will provide additional layers of protection against these powerful germs.
In the simplest of terms, antibiotics and Vyv work in very different ways, with antibiotics affecting a single “target” and Vyv affecting multiple ubiquitous “targets” within a microorganism. Microbes have proven effective at mutating to resist aggression toward a single target, but not multiple targets.
Antibiotics operate by targeting a singular molecule or function within a cell: a component of either DNA synthesis; cell wall synthesis; or protein synthesis. Bacteria are then able to generate one of four resistance mechanisms: antibiotic inactivation, target modification, altered permeability, or the bypass of that part of the metabolic pathway. These mechanisms become effective because resistance is needed against only the single target within the cell.
By contrast, Vyv technology impacts bacteria through the photoactivation of the ubiquitous and critical building blocks of the cell, specifically, unique microbial porphyrin molecules, which then produce Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). These ROS cause irreparable damage intracellularly by affecting numerous targets simultaneously, including DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids. It would be very difficult for microbes to produce enough mutations that did not kill the cell to generate viable resistance.
This dynamic has been demonstrated in several studies that looked at the potential for the development of resistance to antimicrobial light technology. The lack of resistance after repeated exposure showed that the development of resistance to this light is unlikely to occur, especially on surface environments.