New strategies for antibiotic resistance discovered by researchers
With infections increasingly resistant to even the most modern antibiotics, researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) report in the September issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology on new evidence found in molecules of the immune system defend against infection. Drs. Michael R. Yeamans and Nannette Y. Evidence that small proteins Yount in the immune system of humans and all kingdoms of life share fundamental structural and functional characteristics that enable these molecules to inhibit or kill microbial pathogens - even though these pathogens evolve to resist conventional antibiotics .These results indicate that nature uses a recurring molecular strategy to defend themselves from infection, said Dr. Yeamans. A
better understanding of this strategy provides new opportunities for the development of new anti-infectives to improve the prevention or treatment of life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infections in progress. Most modern antibiotics work by targeting specific structures or functions in microbial pathogens. If the targets change due to mutation, pathogens can quickly become resistant to antibiotics.In contrast, the molecules of the immune systems ability to fight infections have retained - even if the microbes grow.While human ingenuity has created so far seem to be pathogens resistant to antibiotics, after a few years, nature has created molecules that keep our immune systems ability to defend against infection, even after millions of years of evolution, said Dr.
Yeamans. We have much to learn from nature. Article in September shed new light on the molecular basis of the ability of these antimicrobial molecules. Drs. Yeamans Yount and signal that a structure discovered in these molecules in 2004 - known as the heart of it - can hypermutability, or abnormally high levels of mutation or modification at specific sites within these molecules.To do this, the basic structure that often
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