Ever heard of a medicine called Nourseothricin? It’s an antibiotic, a type of drug that kills bacteria and can help treat infections.
It was discovered back in the 1940s and is actually made by a fungus that lives in the soil! Nourseothricin is part of a larger family of antibiotics called streptothricins.
When it was first found, doctors thought it could be a powerful weapon against some very stubborn bacteria.
You see, some bacteria have a thick outer layer that makes it really hard for most antibiotics to get in and kill them.
These are called Gram-negative bacteria. However, doctors found out that nourseothricin could harm the kidneys and decided not to use it.
A Fresh Look at an Old Drug
As you may know, bacteria have been getting smarter and are finding ways to resist antibiotics. This makes them really hard to kill, and they can cause some severe and potentially deadly infections.
This problem has encouraged scientists to search for new antibiotics, and a group of scientists led by James Kirby at Harvard Medical School decided to revisit nourseothricin.
Earlier, when nourseothricin was studied, scientists did not completely separate the different forms of streptothricins in it.
These different forms have different levels of toxicity, meaning they can harm the body in different amounts.
Recent work has shown that one form, called streptothricin-F, is not as harmful while still being very good at killing multi-drug resistant bacteria.
In their new study, Kirby and his team looked closely at two forms of streptothricins, D and F, and found out some pretty cool things!
A Powerful Punch Against Stubborn Bacteria
The scientists found that the D form was very good at killing drug-resistant bacteria but could also cause harm to the kidneys.
The F form was not as powerful as the D form, but it still packed a punch against these tough bacteria.
Both forms were particularly good at killing Gram-negative bacteria, the ones with that thick, protective outer layer.
By using a technique called cryo-electron microscopy (it’s a way to see tiny things in very high detail), the scientists saw that streptothricin-F attaches itself to a specific part of the bacterial cell.
This causes the bacteria to make mistakes when they’re trying to build their proteins, which eventually kills them.
This way of killing bacteria is unique and different from other antibiotics. That means if other antibiotics can’t kill certain bacteria, streptothricin-F might be able to!
A Potential Weapon for the Future
After their study, the scientists believe that streptothricin could be a powerful weapon in the future against multi-drug resistant bacteria.
It was the first antibiotic discovered that could kill Gram-negative bacteria, and it’s still good at doing that job even after all these years.
It’s like an old soldier that was dismissed from duty, but now it’s being called back because we need its unique skills to win a new battle.
Isn’t it cool to think that an old drug could have a new life fighting tough bacteria? Just like an old warhorse, it’s ready to go back into battle!
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The study was published in PLOS Biology.
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