Cockroach and locust brains can be a rich source of antibiotics to fight even the most resistant bacteria, announced the Society for General Microbiology in Nottingham.
Simon Lee’s team at Nottingham University found in the brains of cockroaches and locusts as many as 9 different substances with such a strong antibacterial effect that they destroyed the food poisoning bacterium Escherichia coli, and seven of them killed 90 percent of the superbugs – methicillin resistant strains of staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), without harming and human cells.
As Lee explains, insects living in the dirt must be very resistant to pathogenic microorganisms. The nervous system is especially sensitive – hence the presence of substances with such a strong effect in their brain.
The authors of the study hope that similar substances will find use in human treatment – but this will still require many years of research. Meanwhile, strains resistant to most known antibiotics appear more and more often. (PAP)