A newly-discovered antibiotic-resistant gene is threatening to open a new front in the war against superbugs by rendering a last-resort drug impotent, experts warn. The gene’s resistance to colistin, a life-saving medication which has been around for 60 years, is the latest frustration for physicians battling disease with a shrinking arsenal of antibiotics to treat a wide variety of ailments, many once easily curable. Dubbed mcr-1, the resistance-conferring gene easily transfers between bacteria, benign or otherwise, found in humans, animals or the environment. First identified in China last November, the gene has since been discovered in livestock, water, meat and vegetables for human consumption in several countries, and in humans infected with E.coli — one of the disease-causing bacteria it targets. For the first time, mcr-1 has now also been found living in the gut of healthy humans, a conference of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) heard in Amsterdam this weekend. – ‘Antibiotic crisis’ – “(A) key element for the emergence of superpathogens (superbugs, or drug-resistant germ strains) has made its way to our bodies,” researcher Aycan Gundogdu of Turkey’s Erciyes University told delegates. “It is (only) a matter of time (before) the dissemination of