The new buzz on antibiotics
saly44
in the Hadith of prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him)
"If a fly falls down to your vessel,
drown all of it then remove it,
for one of its wings has the ailment
and the other has the cure,"
The new buzz on antibiotics
The surface of flies is the last place you would expect to find
antibiotics, yet that is exactly where a team of Australian
researchers is concentrating their efforts.
Working on the theory that flies must have remarkable antimicrobial
defences to survive rotting dung, meat and fruit, the team at the
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, set out to
identify those antibacterial properties manifesting at different
stages of a fly’s development.
"Our research is a small part of a global research effort for new
antibiotics, but we are looking where we believe no-one has looked
before,” said Ms Joanne Clarke, who presented the group’s findings at
the Australian Society for Microbiology Conference in Melbourne this
week. The project is part of her PhD thesis.
The scientists tested four different species of fly: a house fly, a
sheep blowfly, a vinegar fruit fly and the control, a Queensland
fruit
fly which lays its eggs in fresh fruit. These larvae do not need as
much antibacterial compound because they do not come into contact
with
as much bacteria.
Flies go through the life stages of larvae and pupae before becoming
adults. In the pupae stage, the fly is encased in a protective casing
and does not feed. "We predicted they would not produce many
antibiotics," said Ms Clarke.
They did not. However the larvae all showed antibacterial properties
(except that of the Queensland fruit fly control).
As did all the adult fly species, including the Queensland fruit fly
(which at this point requires antibacterial protection because it has
contact with other flies and is mobile).
Such properties were present on the fly surface in all four species,
although antibacterial properties occur in the gut as well. "You find
activity in both places," said Ms Clarke.
"The reason we concentrated on the surface is because it is a simpler
extraction.”
The antibiotic material is extracted by drowning the flies in
ethanol,
then running the mixture through a filter to obtain the crude
extract.
When this was placed in a solution with various bacteria including
E.coli, Golden Staph, Candida (a yeast) and a common hospital
pathogen, antibiotic action was observed every time.
"We are now trying to identify the specific antibacterial compounds,"
said Ms Clarke. Ultimately these will be chemically synthesised.
Because the compounds are not from bacteria, any genes conferring
resistance to them may not be as easily transferred into pathogens.
It
is hoped this new form of antibiotics will have a longer effective
therapeutic life.
Danny Kingsley - ABC Science Online
also ...http://www.yemenpost.net/8/Health/2.htm