Antibiotics created from sweat

• April 18, 2024

Because bacteria have become increasingly resistant to drugs, scientists at various universities are studying other avenues to create a new generation of natural antibiotics based on cells and body chemicals, such as sweat.

In this sense, researchers from the University of Edinburgh believe that substances such as dermcidin, produced naturally by our body, could be used to develop new resources that fight super hospital bacteria, such as deadly strains of the tuberculosis .

The sweat glands of our organism produce natural antibiotics that protect us from bacterial or fungal infections; that is, when we sweat, this substance is activated in a salty and slightly acid medium, attacking organisms without giving them the chance to mutate or generate resistance.

These substances, known as antimicrobial peptides, are more effective in the long term than human-made antibiotics because they directly attack the cell wall of germs until they are destroyed.

Dermcidin has a broad spectrum effect that can be adapted to different types of cell membrane, which would explain its effectiveness with bacteria, fungi and some viruses, according to the study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This antibiotic is effective against the bacillus causing the tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis) or staphylococcus aureus, the causative agent of numerous hospital infections that are increasingly immune to traditional drugs.

In this way, discovering and analyzing the general anatomy of the molecules of other natural antibiotics, which develop new ways to combat the mutation and resistance of many bacteria caused by the indiscriminate use of drugs in the past.

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Video Medicine: Sweat and Antibiotics (April 2024).