Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Israeli scientists create microbe fighter
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/news/article_1256862.php/Israeli_scientists_create_microbe_fighter
HAIFA, Israel (UPI) -- http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/news/article_1256862.php/Israeli_scientists_create_microbe_fighter
Israeli scientists say they`ve found a way to enable an antimicrobial peptide to attack specific common bacteria.
Professor Amram Mor and colleagues at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology revamped an antimicrobial peptide, a small molecule made of short chains of amino acids, that attacks Pseudomonas aeruginosa -- the bacterium that causes a wide range of infections.
Yet a feature making peptides so useful -- their ability to kill a variety of invaders from bacteria to cancer cells -- makes them hard to deploy against specific infections. Their non-specific action can also destroy normal red blood cells.
Mor and colleagues removed a few amino acids from one end of a dermaseptin peptide and replaced it with a fatty acid molecule. The study showed, for the first time, a fatty acid can replace part of a shortened peptide, which may lower the costs of manufacturing such peptides, according to the researchers.
The change made that particular peptide deadly accurate against P. aerugin,osa, while leaving other bacteria alone. The new peptide was also 60 times less likely to adhere to red blood cells.
The complex research was reported in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International