A new class of antibiotic, teixobactin, was discovered in early 2015. Prior to that, amoxicillin had been the newest on the scene after its discovery in 1972. With the spread of mcr-1, a gene that enables superbugs to resist last resort antibiotics, the need for new candidates for antibiotic treatments is more dire than ever, and researchers are looking to the plant kingdom for answers.
Two small peptides found in crop species were shown to have similar effects to antibiotics in fighting bacteria that causes food to spoil, leading to food poisoning. The researchers tested a combination of the peptides with a human peptide known to have antimicrobial properties and saw an exponential increase in their bacteria-fighting capability.
"There are two major advantages to these small peptides in that no-resistance mechanisms have emerged yet, and in that they can be inexpensively synthesized in the lab," lead researcher Ursula Bond, PhD, of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, said in a statement. "Initially, our aim was to identify peptides that provide protection against food-spoiling bacteria, but these peptides may also be useful as antibiotics against bacteria that cause serious human diseases."
The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.