Sunday, November 18, 2018

Natural Antibiotic Thanatin

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181115104630.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC40060/
 This spiny soldier bug has become quite useful in  battling gram negative bacteria. Gram negative bacteria is very hard to fend off resulting in very few antibiotics choices. However, researchers recently found a naturally forming antibiotic inside the bug which interrupts the defensive layer of the bacteria. This antibiotic is Thanatin. It attacks the formation of the 2nd outer layer of the negative gram, specifically the cells that transport lipopolysaccharide(LPS)  which is the main ingredient for the bacterial layer. Thanatin itself is able to stop LPS from binding to each other to form their membrane which means that it specifically targets bacterial protein/enzymes so there should not be human side effects (hopefully). This introduces new ways to produce antibiotics to potentially save lives.

No comments:

Post a Comment