Ingredient of small black mushroom (Pseudoplectania nigrella) from Northern European pine forests could be crucial for the development of an entirely new, powerful types of antibiotics and antiviral medicines.
Danish Researchers were the first to isolate Plectasin, an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) active against multi-resistant bacterial from a saprophytic fungus. First tests with Plectasin, were already conducted on animals at Georgetown University.
Plectasin is a type of molecule called defensin found in animals and plants. As a group, defensins exhibit activity against many types of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and even viruses. Until now it has been successfully tested against Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pyogenes and other types of Gram-positive bacteria, including strains that are now resistant to conventional antibiotics. It showed very low toxicity in mice and cure them from experimental peritonitis and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae with same efficiency as vancomycin and penicillin.
Michael Zasloff, M.D., Ph.D., Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center said that although the precise mechanism by which plectasin exerts its antimicrobial activity is still under investigation, it may work by a mechanism that is very different from traditional antibiotic treatments.”
Plectasin, if proven safe and effective in humans, could be on the market by 2012 said co-author of the study Robert Lehrer, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
