Bacteria are outgrowing antibiotics faster than we can develop drugs, so scientists have turned to the human microbiome—a competitive environment home to some 100 trillion microbes—to search for ingredients to fight disease.
The US researchers analyzed gut microbiomes from 1,773 people, analyzing 444,054 proteins previously identified for antibiotic potential.
Of the 78 most promising candidates that the team synthesized and tested in the lab, 70.5% of them showed the ability to fight microbes such as bacteria, indicating that they could be used in the last in antibiotics – and suggesting that our guts do indeed harbor a wide selection of microbes-fighting substances.
“We think of biology as a source of information,” says bioengineer César de la Fuente of the University of Pennsylvania, according to .
“It’s all just code. And if we can find algorithms that can sort this code, we can dramatically speed up antibiotic discovery.”
One of the most promising proteins discovered, prevothelin-2, showed bacteria-killing capabilities that matched polymyxin B—currently one of the most effective for infections that have developed resistance to several other drugs.
One of the most promising proteins discovered
“This suggests that mining new and exciting classes of antimicrobial peptides from the human microbiome is a promising avenue for researchers and clinicians, and especially for patients,” says physician-researcher Ami Bhatt of Stanford University.
There is still a lot of work to be done to make it functional, but these early results are very promising – and even more so if they are comparable to the “drugs of last resort” that are already in use.
The researchers also note that the identified proteins are not built like conventional antimicrobial molecules. This could potentially open up entirely new ways to develop these killer superbugs.
“Interestingly, these molecules have a different composition than what has traditionally been considered antimicrobial,” says bioengineer Marcelo Torres of the University of Pennsylvania.
“The compounds we discovered constitute a new class, and their unique properties will help us understand and expand the sequence space of antimicrobials.”
The tools needed to eliminate other drug infections
The traditional way in the environment takes a lot of time and effort – which is why de la Fuente and his colleagues are looking for sources of antibiotics already existing in nature that can be activated more quickly.
They are also very necessary: antibiotic resistance is a rapidly growing problem that is not being helped by the way we treat the planet and has already been linked to millions of deaths.
Scientists are working hard on solutions, but it’s a constant race to stay ahead of the ever-evolving bacteria we’re fighting.
The reported findings support the researchers’ initial hypothesis: that the need to constantly evolve and adapt in the gut to survive could give our microbiome the tools to fight off other infections with specific drugs.
The research was published in
