Some actually encouraging news from the 'super-bugs'/antibiotic resistance front (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/20/antibiotics-apocalypse-research-resistance-threat-breakthrough) in that bacteriocins appear to have medical possibilities. Most antibiotics are 'wide spectrum' meaning that they are initially active (until resistance is acquired) against a range of bacteria (including those living symbiotically in our guts). This means that current antibiotics produce collateral damage to our overall health as well as potentially producing 'wide-spectrum' resistance in lots of microbes. Bacteriocins are much more specific in that they are produced by bacteria to suppress only one competitor species. Until recently, it was suspected that they could not be given to patients as these foreign proteins would cause an immune response. Recently reported research suggests that the body is much more tolerant to them than was thought. Perhaps bacteriocins specific to Staphylococcus aureus and other problem infectives can be developed?
No comments:
Post a Comment