Beating antibiotic resistance

A new antibiotic is discovered in the human nose.

Be prepared to choke on your sipping beverage because the stark medical fact is that some estimates suggest that in the coming decades more people will die from antibiotic resistant bacteria than cancer. To avoid this we need to use antibiotics selectively and properly but the knowledge of the looming problem is driving the search for new antibiotics that will be effective against antibiotic resistant bacteria. Now, in a new study, it seems one of that new generation may have been found in a surprising place; the human nose.

These researchers started from the basis that one of the leading antibiotic resistant bugs is Staphylococcus aureus and ti naturally enjoys the environment in the human nasal cavity. However, the researchers also noted that Staphylococcus aureus is rarely found when another common, but benign, inhabitant of the human nostril, Staphylococcus lugdunensis is present.

On examination the researchers found that Staphylococcus lugdunensis produces a substance they have dubbed “lugdunin”. This ludgunin has a previously unknown ring structure of protein blocks meaning it belongs to a new class of materials. The exciting thing is that tests in mice have shown that lugdunin kills multiresistant bacteria.

It remains to be seen whether lugdunin can be used therapeutically or perhaps Staphylococcus lugdunensis can be introduced into people where exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria is a possibility.

Sometimes you have to think laterally to find the answer you seek even if the answer is right under, or even in, your nose.

Source: Nature