Vampires Bacteria Potentially for Super Antibiotics

Bacteria commonly found in wastewater could revolutionize modern medicine. These bacteria are basically similar vampires bacteria, that is spending time by hunting the other bacteria and suck all the nutrients.

The bacteria is named Micavibrio aeruginosavorus. Scientists have known this for thirty years, but it proved very difficult to study with conventional techniques. Researchers from the University of Virginia has just managed to break the genetic code and then figure out how the bacteria.

Micavibrio aeruginosavorus survive by finding other bacterial strains. He then attached to the prey cell wall and began to suck nutrients victims. Most of the bacteria indeed survive by taking nutrients from the surrounding environment. But bacteria Micavibrio aeruginosavorus just hung his salvation in a way to find and destroy other bacteria.

Vampires Bacteria Potentially for Super Antibiotics

One of his favorite prey is the enemy of man, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosavorus that causes serious lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Although still early, the researchers said that it would be possible to use Micavibrio aeruginosavorus against deadly pathogens. Stay injected into areas of the body closest to the source of infection and membiarkanya hunt down and destroy infectious bacteria.

"Experts disease may eventually be able to use these bacteria to fight fire with fire, so the bacteria will aggressively hunt and attack certain other bacteria that are dangerous to humans," said chief researcher, Martin Wu, as quoted from io9.com, Thursday (3 / 11 / 2011).

Wu also added that this could potentially reduce bacterial vampire human dependence on traditional antibiotics and help reduce the problem of drug resistance are now facing the medical world.

Common antibiotics work by inhibiting the reproduction of bacteria or destroy cell walls. The problem is that certain strains of bacteria have been resistant to antibiotics and create a new type of so-called 'super bugs'. Micavibrio aeruginosavorus is an attractive alternative because bacteria can not build resistance to predators in the same way as in traditional antibiotics.

And because the bacteria are only hunt certain strains of bacteria, then it will not pose a threat to the beneficial bacteria that are important in the human body. Bacteria vampires also can operate in difficult environments, such as the viscous mucus layer produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosavorus, and attacking targets where traditional antibiotics are significantly less effective.

But of course, this bacterium is not yet ready to be injected into the human body. Still required significant genetic engineering of bacteria to these vampires can hunt the desired bacterial strains and allow bacteria to another. Although dmeikian, this discovery could potentially be a major breakthrough and the fact that scientists already have the mapping of genes is a very encouraging beginning.