The human body generates a number of antimicrobial peptides that assist the immune system to fend off infection. Scientists hoping to employ these peptides as probable antibiotics recently found that other peptides in the human body might include strong antimicrobial effects as well. This can expand the collection of novel antibiotic candidates.
In the recent research, scientists from the University of Naples Federico II and MIT discovered that parts of the protein pepsinogen, an enzyme utilized in the digestion of food in the stomach, can destroy a number of bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella. The researchers proclaimed that by altering these peptides to improve their antimicrobial activity, they might develop synthetic peptides. These synthetic peptides possibly will be employed as antibiotics against drug-challenging bacteria.
Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez, an MIT postdoc, Areces Foundation Fellow, is one of the senior authors of the latest paper. He proclaimed that these peptides are comprised of a huge outline for engineering. The proposal now is to utilize synthetic biology to transform them and make them more potent.
On a similar note, earlier, researchers at Hokkaido University, Japan, proclaimed that they have discovered a novel technique. Using the latest technique might potentially help to detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria beforehand. Researchers proclaimed that they have successfully advanced a way of testing bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
Researchers also claimed that they found three unknown resistance mutations whilst doing so. As this experiment was successful in detecting both known as well as unknown mutations, the latest technique might be helpful in studying the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.
Researchers from the university and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Japan documented a technique by scientifically searching for resistant ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. These genes are said to be the “indispensable’” important part of the cell that produces proteins.
