The antibiotic resistance They have been progressively becoming a global problem for years.
Obtaining an antibacterial compound that kills these super-bugs is complicated, since there are more and more mechanisms that these microorganisms that cause serious diseases devise to escape current antibiotics. Reaching the point that there are already known bacteria that resist any type of antibiotic.
Luckily, and according to a recent publication in Organic Letters, it is possible that we already have in our hands that compound antibacterial soado, a compound capable of killing 98.4% of resistant bacteria.
The definitive antibacterial compound has arrived
antibiotic_resistances
According to James McClintock and colleagues at the University of Alabama (Birmingham), this antibacterial compound would have been detected in a sea sponge, specifically from the Antarctic sea, which appears to produce a bactericidal substance with proven efficacy of 98.4% on MRSA-infected cells (Staphylococcus Aureus Meticilin Resistant). In fact, the substance has already been patented and is now undergoing artificial laboratory synthesis for use as a treatment.
The Staphylococcus Aureus type MRSA is a mutated strain of the common S. Aureus, a very dangerous and life-threatening variety, as it has developed great resistance to the antibiotics currently available. Such infection can be transmitted by simple contact with the skin, and produces symptoms such as pus-filled blisters or fever, becoming fatal in some cases. In fact, according to the US Center for Disease Control Every year 80,000 people are infected with MRSA and some 11,000 end up dying.
Darwinolide, the definitive antibacterial compound
This compound from the Membranous Dendril, an Antarctic sea sponge, has received the name of darwinolide. At the moment laboratory tests have shown that it has a unique structure, which allows it to pass through the biofilm that MRSA bacteria use to protect themselves from common antibiotics.
This compound does not look for bacteria in body fluids, but goes directly against the mentioned biofilms. According to the researchers, Its unique chemical structure will be the cause of its effectiveness against biofilms and, consequently, against bacteria. And this could serve as a starting point for developing new drugs against resistant bacteria.
At the moment it is already trying to manufacture this compound artificially in the laboratory, since the conditions of the Antarctic are not ideal to extract it from the sponges in vivo.
