Make medication errors to fight super-bugs like MRSA
Antibiotic resistance is a major problem worldwide and there is an urgent need for new antibiotics are developed. Potential new drugs are usually in the laboratory, which is complicated and time. An international team of scientists with the help of bacteria naturally present in soil to produce new antibiotics in the fight against drugs resistant superbugs such as MRSA. Led by Professor Tony Maxwell of the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK) [1] and Professor Lutz Heide of the Institute pharmaceutical Tbingen (Germany) [2], the team has the potential of the technology developed harmless soil bacteria Streptomyces, which is not difficult for the chemistry between them.Streptomyces natural antibiotics to kill other bacteria in the soil. Unfortunately, these drugs are not very well
suited for use in humans because they are not very soluble in water and are therefore not easily get into the bloodstream. The researchers found a way to modify bacteria to produce new varieties of these antibiotics could become more effective drugs. Produced by studying variations of two natural antibiotics produced by Streptomyces, called novobiocin and clorobiocin, the scientists determine which parts of the molecules essential for the antibacterial activity.They hope that by varying other parts of the molecules they can create new antibiotics with improved efficacy and fewer side-effects design.Jobs and novobiocin clorobiocin interfering with DNA, the molecule that contains genetic information, is located in the bacterial cell. The DNA in human cells is packed
differently and so these cells are not affected by antibiotics. This work is an excellent example of the European Union [3] at its best, combining the strengths of the seven laboratories in five different states to do work that would not be possible in the lab working alone, said Tony Maxwell We very optimistic that we are able to make basic findings of these antibiotics, which will help them become key weapons in the fight against Pages: [1] 2