Development for anthrax and MRSA treatment
The discovery of a new chemical compound produced by a microorganism has offered hope for the future treatment of anthrax and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
A scientist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanology at the University of California, San Diego, first collected the microorganism in 2012, from sediments close to the Santa Barbara shore.
Following the finding, a San Diego-based company worked in conjunction with the team from the university's Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, to decipher the unusual structure of the compound's molecules.
The team then discovered that the unusual compound, which they named anthracimycin, has the power to kill bacteria that causes anthrax and MRSA.
As a result, it is hoped that the finding will one day lead to the development of a new antibiotic drug.
"The real importance if this work is the fact that anthracimycin has a new and unique chemical structure," said William Fenical, professor of oceanography and pharmaceutical science, who led the team.
"The discovery of truly new antibiotic compounds is compounds is quite rare. This discovery adds to many previous discoveries, which show that marine bacteria are genetically and chemically unique."
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