Toward Improved Antibiotics Using Proteins From Marine Diatoms - Biomacromolecules Journal

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  MRSA / Drug Resistance
Article Date: 07 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Researchers in Florida are reporting an advance toward tapping the enormous potential of an emerging new group of antibiotics identical to certain germ-fighting proteins found in the human immune system. Their study, which may help fight the growing epidemic of drug-resistant infections, is in the current (August) issue of ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.

In the new study, D. Matthew Eby, Glenn Johnson, and Karen Farrington point out that scientists have long eyed the germ-fighting potential of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). These small proteins fight a wide range of bacteria and fungi in the body and have the potential to be developed into powerful drugs to overcome infections that are resistant to conventional drugs. But scientists report difficulty producing effective AMPs because the antibiotics are fragile and easily destroyed in the body. An effective way to stabilize them is needed, they say.

The scientists discovered that some AMPs have properties similar to a shell-building protein derived from marine diatoms, microscopic algae, and that these protective properties may fit the bill. When an AMP was combined with certain minerals, the antibiotic developed a coating of silica nanoparticles. - MTS

"Synthesis of Bioinorganic Antimicrobial Peptide Nanoparticles with Potential Therapeutic Properties"
D. Matthew Eby, Karen E. Farrington, and Glenn R. Johnson
ASAP Biomacromolecules, ASAP Article, 10.1021/bm800512e
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American Chemical Society