IBM wants to replace antibiotics
When Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the finding was key for two reasons: First, obviously, doctors finally had a way to treat illnesses like pneumonia, gonorrhea, and rheumatic fever. Until then, the approach was to watch, wait, and hope the patient’s immune system cleared the infection; that often didn’t work out. And second, the discovery introduced the idea that we could use molecules found in bacteria and fungi to kill other bacteria—ones that cause infection and illness.
Since then, researchers have been on the hunt to find novel molecules, similar to penicillin, to treat the various bacteria and fungi that infect us. And, from the beginning, it’s been a race against time. Bacteria evolve quickly, and while our goal is to annihilate all of them, their goal is precisely the opposite: To survive at all costs. Research shows that in this tug-of-war effort, humans are being gradually draggedcloser and closer to a bacterial victory. In May 2016 the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, a research group funded by the UK Department of Health, estimated that 700,000 people die each year from antibiotic resistant infections (these are bacteria that no currently available antibiotics are able to kill). By 2050, an estimated 10 million people could die from this resistance if researchers don’t find a way to keep up with ever-evolving bacteria.
Scientists are employing countless approaches to avoid this outcome. And while most involve finding new molecules or protein in bacteria or fungi, similar to the way Fleming found penicillin, researchers at IBM are taking a different approach: They’ve created a synthetic molecule that works in a novel way to kill each bacterium from the inside out.
The researchers set out to address the scariest of antibiotic resistance scenarios: When a resistant strain of bacteria becomes systemic, spreading through the blood to every organ system in the body. They designed molecules to fight against five of the most drug-resistant strains commonly acquired in hospitals, which often become systemic and lead to organ failure.
Researchers have been working on creating synthetic molecules for some time now, but it’s been difficult. The synthetic molecule needs to be able to biodegrade—it can’t remain inside the body forever—and it also needs to effectively fight bacteria in a way that doesn’t negatively affect other organ systems in the body. Existing drugs that kill highly resistant bacteria typically do so in exchange for toxicity to the liver and other organs.
“We are trying to emulate the exact way that our innate immune system works,” says James Hedrick, a researcher at IBM. He and his team published their findings in a paper out this week in the journal Nature Communications. Our immune systems target a microbe and lyse its membrane, he says—we destroy cellular invaders by breaking down their protective barriers. “When you get an infection, right away your body secretes antimicrobial peptides, which is simply a fancy word for a polymer.” (A polymer, by the way, is also just a fancy word for a big molecule.) In recent years, many scientists have focused on creating these big molecules in the lab.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/ibm-wants-to-replace-antibiotics-with-these-big-ol-synthetic-molecules/
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