Study: Mining human microbiomes reveal an untapped source of peptide antibiotics . Image Credit: nobeastsofierce / Shutterstock.com In a recent study published in Cell , researchers performed a computational analysis of human gut meta-genomes to identify candidate molecules with antibiotic potential.
Computational screening identified 323 antimicrobial peptides from the human microbiome, with 70.5% showing activity in vitro and the lead, prevotellin-2, matching polymyxin B in efficacy. Discovering new sources of antibiotics Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health issue that contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant microorganisms, thereby increasing the risk of nosocomial infections.
Short peptide molecules, which have been proposed as novel antibacterial medications, consist of short-length amino acid residues, vast sequence space, and non-specific modes of action. To date, few reported cases of resistance against antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been published, which has led researchers to become increasingly interested in their potential clinical applications. Several AMPs, the most common of which include bacitracin, colistin, and polymyxin B, have already been successfully approved for clinical use.
Despite the advantages and success of AMPs, the identification of novel AMP candidates remains a challenge due to the time-consuming processes involved in these experiments. Furthermore, although recent advances in machine learning, genetic algorithms, and pa.