New Study Reveals This Rare Soil Microbe Can Serve as a Potential Antibiotic

Microbes, such as bacteria, are a vast species of organisms that are only detectable to the human eye by using a microscope.

However, various researchers have shown in the past that these microorganisms are capable of influencing not only biological processes but also the environment.

In a new study, scientists from the Washington University in St. Louis and their colleagues have found a potential use of a new discovery of rare soil microbe.

The findings shed the light on a plausible novel antibiotic treatment in the future.

Rare Soil Microbe

(Photo : CHARLES ONIANS/AFP via Getty Images)

The researchers have discovered that a soil bacterium has the potential for the development of new antibiotic medicine, as per the new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS), as cited by the scientific network site labroots.com.

The scientists called the bacteria actinomycetes, which produce bioactive components that are also utilized in other drugs from antibiotics to anti-cancer agents.

The site reportedly claimed that two-thirds or 66.6% of all antibiotics used across the healthcare industry, including in clinics and hospitals, came from gram-positive bacteria.

Also Read: Antimicrobial Peptides May Help Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Biology: New Methods

The research team of the study developed modern techniques by combining modern metabolomics with chemical and structural biology methods.

The team that the bacterium was able to produce the biological compounds in one of the regions of its genome.

The US researchers then experimented on the molecules to produce a potent chemical reaction, which can be vital not only against common diseases but also for cancer cell lines.

Drug-Resistant Pathogens

Cases of antimicrobial resistance have increased since the wide usage of modern medicine over the past 100 years wherein both anecdotal evidence and medical evidence suggested that antibiotics are facing a series of global failures against infectious diseases.

This rationale entails that the more an individual intakes a specific type of medicine in large frequencies, the more microbes will recognize it and adapt to its effect, leading to antibiotic resistance.

However, there are some pathogens that are entirely resistant to antibiotics, such as viruses

The NYU Langone Health provided a list of pathogens and their associated illnesses that have shown resistance to modern medicines:

Staphylococcus Aureus - a pathogen that causes skin infections.
Streptococcus Pneumoniae - a bacteria that causes lung infection, pneumonia, and other illnesses.
Enterobacteriaceae - this family of bacteria can live inside one's intestines and cause diarrhea and vomiting. In some cases, the microbe can spread outside the gut and infect the bloodstream, wounds, and urinary tract.

Other bacteria that can be resistant to antibiotics cause colds, cough, tuberculosis, and others.

Antimicrobial Resistance

In November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged that the pathogens' feature of antimicrobial resistance has become a threat to health worldwide and a hindrance to development, adding that it is one of the top 10 "global public health threats" against human civilization.

Due to the current circumstances, the WHO proposes urgent holistic actions plans involving multiple sectors.

Measures such as advocating and implementing clean drinking water and sanitation programs are some of the following.