Science & Technology, Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The over prescription of antibiotics in recent times is believed to be responsible the emergence of superbugs.
Researchers from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), have produced a new type of antibiotic with the ability to rapidly re-engineer in preventing the resistance of dangerous superbugs.
The production was the work of PhD candidate Priscila Cardoso and principal supervisor Dr Céline Valéry from the RMIT, School of Health and Biosciences, in which the antibiotic consists of a simple design permitting it to be formed fast as well as economically in a laboratory.
The antibiotic known as Priscilicidin has small, amino acid building blocks, hence it can be adjusted to handle various types of antimicrobial resistance.
As WHO (World Health Organization) referring to antimicrobial resistance as “one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity”, making the production new antibiotics the need of the hour.
Professor Charlotte Conn, a PhD supervisor of Cardoso, indicated that given that urgency, Priscilicidin they were excited about the breakthrough for public health.
Priscilicidin is a form of antimicrobial peptide, which are formed by all living organisms as the 1st defense against bacteria and viruses.
Priscilicidin is a natural product that is produced by certain strains of the bacteria Streptomyces pristinaespiralis. It is a member of the macrolide antibiotic family and has potent activity against a range of bacteria.
Following the review of literature on antimicrobial peptide molecular engineering, the team produced and carried out tests on 20 short peptides prior to deciding that Priscilicidin was the most suitable option.
“The pharmaceutical industry generally tests thousands of compounds before getting a lead candidate. In our case, only 20 designs were necessary to create an entire new family of antibiotics,” explained Dr Valéry.
Professor Conn further explained that Priscilicidin was based on a natural antibiotic peptide, giving it a lower chance of leading to antimicrobial resistance when contrasted to the present conventional antibiotics.
She further indicated that the present natural antibiotics are costly and hard to make on a bigger scale. They break down fast in the body as well.
“Priscilicidin combines the advantages of small molecular design, which means it’s quick and inexpensive to synthesise in a lab, with the advantages of natural antibiotics.”
The biosynthesis of pristinamycin, of which priscilicidin is a component, is generally a complex process that involves a large number of enzymes and regulatory factors. The basic steps involved in the biosynthesis of pristinamycin.
In this instance researchers had Priscilicidin derived from Indolicidin, a natural antibiotic present in cows’ immune systems.
The researchers work appeared in January this year in the Women in Nanoscience 2022 special issue of Frontiers in Chemistry, revealing that Priscilicidin was highly active in fighting resistant microbial strains like golden staph, E. coli bacteria and candida fungi.
Researchers also showed that Priscilicidin functions by disturbing the membrane of the microbes, eventually destroying the cell.
Dr Valéry says “Attacking this outer layer makes it harder for the bacteria to evolve and resist treatment.”
Lab tests have demonstrated that Priscilicidin had a similar antimicrobial action as Indolicidin on common bacterial as well as fungal infections.
The findings of the team indicate that Priscilicidin’s molecules naturally self-assemble into a hydrogel form, giving it a great potential ideal for the production of antibiotic gels and creams.
Dr Valéry further pointed out that when new drugs are formed, scientists are required to take into consideration the pharmaceutical formulation of the drug, which include the drug’s form (e.g.: capsule or cream) and the method utilized. The natural hydrogel form of Priscilicidin meant it presented the researchers the chance to bypass some of that formulation methods, according to Dr Valéry.
