Drug-resistant bacterial infections, such as the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly known as MRSA, can pose serious - and at times seemingly insurmountable - threats to public health. A recent discovery, however, shows that the chemicals found on frog skin - which is rife with toxins thanks to the hostile environment frogs have inhabited during the last 300 million years - may be able to act as antibiotics to treat resistant strains. A team at the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi Emirate, presented more than 100 antibiotic substances identified from more than 6,000 species of frogs at the American Chemical Society's 240th National Meeting. These antibiotics can prevent microbes from developing resistance, but their toxicity makes them harmful to human cells as well. Lead researcher Michael Conlon and his team have developed mechanisms to alter the molecular structure of the compounds, making them less noxious to human cells. These alterations also help prevent attacks against the antibiotics by enzymes in the bloodstream.
Many of the 100 antibiotic substances hold the promise to treat prevalent drug-resistant infections, and one already has been identified as a treatment for "Iraqibacter," a drug-resistance bacterium that causes infections in wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq. The research team is hopeful the drugs will enter clinic trials in about five years.
-compiled by Lani Hossain
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