Poster Presentation 25th International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference 2026

Old Drugs, New Tricks: Beating Gonorrhoea Resistance   (#032)

Holly EE Floyd 1 , Johannes Zuegg 1 , Tanuka Sen 1 , Fabian Kong 2 , Mark AT Blaskovich 1
  1. Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  2. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne , VIC, Australia

In 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated antimicrobial-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae as a high-priority pathogen.1 Yet only 3% of antimicrobial drugs currently in development target this organism.2 Resistance has emerged against all previously used antibiotics, and strains showing reduced susceptibility to the few remaining options are increasing, making untreatable gonorrhoea an imminent global threat.3,4 Drug repurposing offers a promising strategy for antimicrobial discovery. We screened over 1,000 non-antibacterial compounds - spanning all stages of the drug development pipeline - against 16 species from the WHO Global Priority Pathogen List, with a particular focus on N. gonorrhoeae. Several candidates are being advanced as potential novel therapies for drug-resistant gonorrhoea. Our top compounds have been tested against more than 20 N. gonorrhoeae strains with diverse resistance profiles, yielding encouraging results. Current work aims to determine their antibacterial mechanisms, their efficacy in eradicating infection within mammalian cells, and assess the likelihood of resistance development. 

  1. World Health Organization. WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogens List, 2024: bacterial pathogens of public health importance to guide research, development and strategies to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance. 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
  2. World Health Organization. 2023 Antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development: an overview and analysis. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. 2024
  3. Unemo M, Shafer WM. Antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the 21st century: past, evolution, and future. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2014;27(3):587-613. Accepted manuscript. Published online 2014/07/02. doi:10.1128/cmr.00010-14
  4. Abdellati S, Laumen JGE, de Block T, et al. Gonococcal resistance to zoliflodacin could emerge via transformation from commensal Neisseria species. An in-vitro transformation study. Scientific Reports. 2024;14(1):1179. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-49943-z