The antibiotic resistance they are a serious problem that many have already dubbed the great pandemic of the 21st century. It is much quieter than COVID-19, but it has been causing deaths around the world for years and, if nothing is done to solve it, they will continue to grow faster and faster. The ideal would be to promote a responsible use of antibiotics. However, at this point, it is also important to look for other ways to combat bacteria resistant to them. All kinds of substances obtained from Natural sources, such as some plants and even the fluids of certain animals. But the key could be precisely in the very thing that you want to combat: the bacteria.
A team of scientists from the McMaster University has discovered a toxin, generated by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is capable of fighting other species with great efficiency. It would be almost like putting resistant bacteria to fight each other. Only, in reality, the weapons would be used by us.
This is not the first time something like this has been discovered. However, this time it is even more interesting, because this toxin attacks a molecule as necessary for life as RNA. More research still needs to be done, but it is a promising path.
Bacterial toxins against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Paradoxically, Pseudomonas aeruginosa it is one of the most problematic resistant bacteria species. It is known for many reasons, but above all for causing infections in hospitalized patients. These are very vulnerable people, so the bacterium can be lethal if it has developed resistance and we cannot attack it with antibiotics.
Part of its danger lies in the presence of very dangerous toxins, both for the animals it infects and for other microbes. One of its most studied toxins is exotoxin A. It is known to interfere with protein elongationwhen these are being synthesized, so it can affect many essential mechanisms for life in which these proteins play a key role.
this gun has been harnessed for years in research into treatments for the hepatitis B virus. As we already know, viruses do not have the ability to replicate or synthesize their own proteins. They need to hijack the machinery of cells of their hosts. If these sticks are also put in the wheels when it comes to elongating proteins, it will not be able to cause the disease.
Based on all this, the authors of the study that has just been published in Molecular Cell They investigated other toxins until they found one that seemed to attack bacteria of different species. They already had the gun, but they had to know how it worked
RNA attack
Other bacterial toxins have managed to combat different species of bacteria through the direct attack on some of its proteins. However, when they checked to see if this toxin was capable of doing the same thing, they found that it was not. In fact, he went much further back, to the root of the problem.
In order for the information contained in the genetic material of the cells to be converted into proteins, which will carry out different functions, it must first go through an intermediate step, in which the key actor is the messenger RNA. This molecule carries information in a language that can be read by ribosomes, the protein factories of cells.
Therefore, if messenger RNA is hijacked, proteins cannot be made. In addition, many other processes essential for cell survival have the intervention of different types of RNA.
This is a very interesting finding, since it could interfere with the pathogenicity of the antibiotic resistant bacteria before it even comes to fruition. Everything is very promising, but there is still a long way to go before we can foster this virtual fight between cells. Meanwhile, we have no choice but to try to block the advance of the resistance. And, for that, the best thing is that you throw away all those antibiotics that you have saved for when you feel a little cold. Antibiotics do not cure everything and if we insist on trying, the day will come when they will not even cure the only thing that they are now capable of curing.