Oyster blood could hold key to fighting drug-resistant superbugs
January 26, 2025 4:09 PM   Subscribe

Australian oysters’ blood could hold key to fighting drug-resistant superbugs, researchers find. Researchers find a protein in the hemolymph (analogous to blood) of Australian oysters which has antimicrobial properties, including against biofilms of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a common cause of pneumonia. The oysters likely evolved the peptide to help prevent infection by similar microbes, and the discovery could help down the road in the development of antibiotics and antiseptics useful to humans.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (5 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
The cynical part of me says, "Great... until we inevitably overuse them, and bacteria evolve resistance to them."

But the hopeful part of me thinks it's cool (and important) that this research is being done.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 4:40 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]


Also, very tasty.
posted by uncle harold at 10:44 PM on January 26


Been there, done similar. In the 00s, we identified a bunch of antimicrobial peptides AMPs by crunching the chicken genome through a gene discovery protocol. These 'gallinacins" or avian beta-defensins were similar to β-defensins already found in mammals. So far so theoretical. We then modified the sequence of one of these genes (according to ideas that required a good bit of arm-waving) and got a protein made from the 'enhanced' DNA. That engineered protein was found to be pretty effective at killing some intestinal pathogens . . . on petri dishes.

One of the young Effectives was very ambitious and there was talk of forming a campus company securing some VC and making us all multimillionaires. But then the Effective graduated and nobody else had the gumption, expertise or interest to go commercial and save the world. Effective is now running a multimillion $ team in Australia; I am running my sofa.

Just suggesting that Dr Benkendorff is still a ways from having product in hospitals.
posted by BobTheScientist at 5:48 AM on January 27 [2 favorites]


There are numerous herbs with antimicrobial properties which have been studied, some of which I believe have shown promise against superbugs, from what I've read over the years.... @BobTheScientist can you confirm, or have any info/thoughts on such research?
posted by TreeHugger at 5:57 AM on January 27


@TreeHugger have shown promise against
Yes, there are lots of reports with various levels of scientific credibility for "Plant defensins" vs cancer, fungi, viral pathogens etc. But our experience was that getting to the level of showing promise is the easy bit. Climbing Mount Improbable to get a useful product to market - that takes time and treasure and, well, bottle [in the UKeng sense of grit, tenacity].
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:03 AM on January 27 [2 favorites]


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