Patriot Heart
05-18-2006, 06:47 AM
This is good news. Antibiotic resistant bacteria is (no pun intended) and ever growing menace.
New antibiotic aimed at resistant germs
<!-- end.title --><!-- publish.date -->Wednesday, May 17, 2006 08:01:19 PM
Scientists have found a chemical that might one day prove critical in the ongoing fight against germs that have developed resistance to existing antibiotics.
The compound, discovered by researchers from the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., could herald the first major new class of antibiotics in decades. It has already proven effective in curing mice infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
That doesn't mean it will work in people, but outside experts are impressed with the results, which are reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers found the compound in a scoop of soil from South Africa. They named it platensimycin, because it is produced by the soil bacterium Streptomyces platensis as a weapon in its own battles against other microbes.
SNIP
"We screened over 250,000 extracts that came from things isolated all the way around the world," said Merck scientist Stephen M. Soisson.
One of them, platensimycin, showed exceptional promise in vitro. It also proved highly effective when tested in mice infected with a common and troublesome strain of Staphylococcus aureus.
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ap/article.html?mi=D8HLRIV80&apc=9020
New antibiotic aimed at resistant germs
<!-- end.title --><!-- publish.date -->Wednesday, May 17, 2006 08:01:19 PM
Scientists have found a chemical that might one day prove critical in the ongoing fight against germs that have developed resistance to existing antibiotics.
The compound, discovered by researchers from the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., could herald the first major new class of antibiotics in decades. It has already proven effective in curing mice infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
That doesn't mean it will work in people, but outside experts are impressed with the results, which are reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers found the compound in a scoop of soil from South Africa. They named it platensimycin, because it is produced by the soil bacterium Streptomyces platensis as a weapon in its own battles against other microbes.
SNIP
"We screened over 250,000 extracts that came from things isolated all the way around the world," said Merck scientist Stephen M. Soisson.
One of them, platensimycin, showed exceptional promise in vitro. It also proved highly effective when tested in mice infected with a common and troublesome strain of Staphylococcus aureus.
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ap/article.html?mi=D8HLRIV80&apc=9020