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from the like-throwing-stars-but-smaller dept.
Tiny, star-shaped molecules are effective at killing bacteria that can no longer be killed by current antibiotics, new research shows.
The study, published today in Nature Microbiology, holds promise for a new treatment method against antibiotic-resistant bacteria (commonly known as superbugs).
The star-shaped structures, are short chains of proteins called 'peptide polymers', and were created by a team from the Melbourne School of Engineering.
...
tests undertaken on red blood cells showed that the star-shaped polymer dosage rate would need to be increased by a factor of greater than 100 to become toxic. The star-shaped peptide polymer is also effective in killing superbugs when tested in animal models.Furthermore, superbugs showed no signs of resistance against these peptide polymers. The team discovered that their star-shaped peptide polymers can kill bacteria with multiple pathways, unlike most antibiotics which kill with a single pathway.
Let's hope any such molecules are thoroughly vetted with long-term studies before being introduced to medical therapies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @04:05PM
Let's hope any such molecules are thoroughly vetted with long-term studies before being introduced to medical therapies.
so you would have millions of people with no recourse die because you are afraid of bad side effects? long-term studies are 10 years minimum, so yeah, millions will die in that time.
Right. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, wait... [wikipedia.org]
Your comment sounds very much like the "we need to do something, this is something, let's do it" type of kneejerk law passing which we always criticize here. See TSA, banning certain types of firearms, trying to ban encryption, etc.
I'll agree that people should have the ability to use whatever extreme, experimental, or quack medicine they want for themselves (assuming it doesn't harm others).
However, for something to become "introduced to medical therapies," that is to say, a commonly accepted medicine which is routinely used on the general public, it absolutely should go through proper scientific tests and rigor to make sure it does more good than harm. If it takes 10 years to gather the information to do that, then so be it. If that delay causes millions who are currently dying to not be saved (a estimate which sounds extremely high to me), then so be it... although see my previous paragraph as well in regard to free will.