Newly Designed Drug With Multiple Microbial Killing Activity: Effective On Bacteria As Well As On Viruses Too

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences


• Date: 10 May,2016

Researcher from University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences recently developed drug which is effective against drug resistant bacteria as well as able to kill serious respiratory viruses. The results of these findings recently appear in mSphere

This potential therapy include an engineered cationic antimicrobial peptide, or "eCAP," which is a synthetic and more efficient version of naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides that form a first line of defense against infections in humans.

According to researcher,

"This is really unusual. To the best of our knowledge, no other antibiotics out there work on both the bacteria and the virus during a co-infection," said senior author Jennifer M. Bomberger, Ph.D., assistant professor in Pitt's Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. "Antibiotic-resistant chronic infections are an urgent public health threat, and the development of new therapies has been painfully slow. So to see something work on a virus and the incredibly resistant biofilms that bacteria form is very exciting."

Note: The above story is for information purposes go through original story source.

Story source: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Journal Reference:

Jeffrey A. Melvin, Lauren P. Lashua, Megan R. Kiedrowski, Guanyi Yang, Berthony Deslouches, Ronald C. Montelaro, Jennifer M. Bomberger. Simultaneous Antibiofilm and Antiviral Activities of an Engineered Antimicrobial Peptide during Virus-Bacterium Coinfection. mSphere, 2016; 1 (3): e00083-16 DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00083-16