Algeferin helps antibiotics
It has long been known that even the simplest organisms adapt to very unfavorable environmental conditions in the course of evolution. Another example of this ability to survive was recently discovered by American scientists working at the Federal Laboratory for Marine Research named after Hollings in Charleston (South Carolina).
They studied the physiology of some species of sponges of the Caribbean Sea, which, without visible damage to themselves, withstand the neighborhood of a whole bouquet of pathogenic bacteria. It turned out that these primitive multicellular animals produce a specific substance that allows them to successfully defend themselves from microbes. This compound, algeferin, does not allow bacteria to form compact stable communities, the so–called biofilms, which are much more successful in overcoming immune defenses compared to scattered microbes.
However, algeferin is capable of more. Bacteria in the course of mutations produce new strains that are much more successful in resisting the action of drugs than their predecessors. That is why penicillin, streptomycin and other first-generation antibiotics now no longer have the miraculous power that they possessed in the first years after their introduction into clinical practice. It turns out, however, that this bacterial evolution can be combated with the help of the same sponge waste product.
As Peter Moeller and his colleagues found out, algeferin dramatically weakens the ability acquired by bacteria to resist antibiotics. Under its action, microbes begin to die again from those antibacterial drugs to which they have long adapted.
So far, these promising results have been obtained only on bacterial cultures. They have yet to be repeatedly tested in subsequent "test tube" experiments and in animal experiments. If algeferin confirms its unique capabilities during all these tests, it can be tested in clinical trials.
Alexey Levin, Voice of AmericaPortal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru