Cockroaches and Locusts May Be the New Answer for Fighting MRSA-Superbug

MRSA is one of the most resistant superbugs in recent history. It has been seen in epidemic proportions in some areas. It is a bacterial infection that is resistant to the typical antibiotic therapy that used to be effective against the bacteria.

Well new help may be on the horizon.

Cockroaches May Be the Answer to Medical Dilemma

Cockroaches and locusts are extremely annoying but strong and hardy bugs. It has been discovered that their brains contain antibacterial molecules that seem to be toxic to the antibiotic resistant MRSA. (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and even E.Coli as an added bonus.

A post graduate researcher at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, Simon Lee, has identified up to nine different molecules in the brains of cockroaches and locusts. He says the tissues of the brain and nervous systems of the insects killed more than 90% of the bugs that cause MRSA as well as E. Coli germs.

Bug Brain Experiments

Simon Lee says he realized that these virulent bugs must have extraordinary germ fighting qualities. They live in unsanitary environments where they encounter many different bacteria. So to him it was logical that they must have developed some way of protecting themselves against the microorganisms.

He presented his findings in Nottingham at the annual meeting of the Society for General Microbiology.

Lee says new antibiotics developed from brains of cockroaches and locusts have the potential to become "alternatives for currently available drugs that may be effective but have serious and unwanted side effects."

New Antibiotics Badly Needed

New antibiotic and antimicrobial agents are desperately needed to meet the challenges of the superbugs today. Lee says that antibacterial compounds from novel natural sources is a vital research area.

The cockroaches and locusts were dissected to obtain the parts that would be studied and tested and that was found to be more than 90% effective. And the substances had no toxic effect on the human brain.

Cockroaches and locusts were dissected to obtain muscle, fat, ganglia, and hemolymph, a fluid equivalent to blood in most invertebrates..

New Drugs from Bugs May Be on the Horizon

MRSA and the other superbugs of our time have developed the ability to resist the arsenal of chemotherapeutic artillery that we have thrown at them. They are able to cause untreatable infections and have become a major threat in our fight against bacterial diseases. That is exactly why this new frontier of novel sources to find new antimicrobials is so exciting to researchers and those in the medical field.

Source:

WebMD