New drug for MRSA from frogs

[Guest guest]

August 30. 2010....by: Bernstein & Woods of merican Chemical

Society

In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the

team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship

secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the

United Arab Emirates. Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more

than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from

around the world. One even fights " Iraqibacter, " the bacterium responsible for

drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.

Conlon, Ph.D., who reported on the research, noted that the emergence of

drug-resistant bacteria, which have the ability to shrug off conventional

antibiotics, is a growing problem worldwide. As a result, patients need new

types of antibiotics to replace drugs that no longer work.

" Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents, " said

Conlon, a biochemist at the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi

Emirate. " They've been around 300 million years, so they've had plenty of time

to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the

environment. Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong

defenses against pathogens are a must. "

Scientists have known for years that the skin of frogs is a rich source of

chemicals capable of killing bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Researchers have

attempted to isolate those germ-fighting chemicals and make them suitable for

development into new antibiotics. Success, however, has been elusive because

froggy antibiotics tend to be toxic to human cells and certain chemicals in the

bloodstream easily destroy them.

Conlon and colleagues described an approach to overcome these problems. They

discovered a way to tweak the molecular structure of frog skin antibiotic

substances, making them less toxic to human cells but more powerful germ

killers. Similarly, the scientists also discovered other tweaks that enabled the

frog skin secretions to shrug off attack by destructive enzymes in the blood.

The result was antibiotics that last longer in the bloodstream and are more

likely to be effective as infection fighters, Conlon noted. The antibiotic

substances work in an unusual way that makes it very difficult for

disease-causing microbes to develop resistance, Conlon said. The scientists are

currently screening skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for

antibiotic activity. So far, they have purified and determined the chemical

structure of barely 200, leaving a potential bonanza of antibiotic substances

awaiting discovery.

Superbugs vs. antibiotics - Misuse of antibiotics breeds drug-resistant diseases

- www.saveantibiotics.org

MRSA - Learn more about MRSA Facts & Causes at WebMD.com® - www.WebMD.com/MRSA

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199196.php

FYI,

Lottie Duthu

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