Superbug solution that could be in your pantry

Like the opening scenes of a horror movie, scientists last month described the discovery of ancient bacteria buried in an ice cave in Romania that are resistant to 10 modern antibiotics.

5000-year-old bacteria melting in ice Theoretically, they pass on drug resistance genes It highlights yet another way microbial evolution can render once life-saving drugs useless against infectious microbes.

However, when efforts to produce new antibiotics failed, many pharmaceutical companies give up all togetherA Sydney researcher has turned to a natural but powerful elixir in the fight against antimicrobial resistance: honey.

University of Sydney microbiologist Dr. “The current arsenal of antimicrobial drugs we have will not be effective against resistant bacteria for much longer,” said Kenya Fernandes. Superbugs are killing nearly 100 Australians a week 5 million people worldwide every year.

“Honey is a really unique solution because it’s a natural product. It’s been developed over millions of years of evolution and is really so complex that it’s hard for us to replicate.”

For a new study published Microbiology OpenFernandes took 56 Australian honeycombs from 35 beehives and ran them through infected Petri dishes. E.Coli and golden staph (Staphylococcus aureus).

Three-quarters of the different honeys killed both insects, even when diluted to 10 percent.

The key finding was that bees feeding on a variety of flowers produced the most antimicrobial honey. In some ways, the study draws a direct line between the biodiversity of Australia’s forests and their potential benefits to human health.

“Actually, it turns out that it is not this or that plant that is important in terms of medicinal honey. What is important is only the presence of indigenous forest with biodiversity,” Fernandes said. he said.

The honeys in Fernandes’ study were made from the nectar of various eucalyptus trees, such as jarrah and ironbark, and other natives, including the marri blood tree and the jelly tree, a type of tea tree.

Honey evolved as an important source of carbohydrates to help bees survive cold winters.

“They need to produce heat to survive. And they do that by taking in the honey, rehydrating it, consuming it, and that gives them the energy to vibrate their heat-producing flight muscles,” said Liz Frost, honey bee technical specialist for the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

But a hive’s honey is actually a delicious, extremely rich mass of sugar lying out in the open. Honey must be resistant to attack by greedy insects and microbes; otherwise bacteria would quickly spoil the bees’ buffet.

This is why honey has evolved to be so antimicrobial; More than 200 compounds have the effect of killing invasive bacteria.

Some of the power to destroy insects is borrowed from plants; Botanical antimicrobial defense compounds migrate from nectar to honey.

Bees also inject an enzyme called glucose oxidase from their salivary glands into honey. When bees dilute viscous honey to feed the queen’s babies, the compound creates hydrogen peroxide, an antiseptic.

“There are a lot of things we don’t know either,” Fernandes said. “We know that there are antimicrobial peptides, perhaps bee immune defense peptides, but most of these have not yet been identified.”

Unlike traditional antibiotics, which can target one part of a bacteria to kill it, honey can kill a microbe in seven or eight different ways, making it much harder for it to evolve, Fernandes said.

“That’s why it’s so good against bacteria; because it’s so complex. But that’s one of the issues with standardization.”

Addressing this issue will partially constitute the next phase of the research. Fernandes says the most realistic medical application is to expand honey’s potential to treat topical wounds, such as scrapes and cuts.

“But chronic wounds are also a big problem. Diabetic ulcers, pressure sores, burn wounds and things like that, especially where patients have resistant bacteria so regular antibiotics don’t work.”

Golden staphylococcus frequently causes drug-resistant skin infections, especially in hospital patients, and may be the target of new honey-derived creams or gels.

Frost said research into the medicinal potential of Australian honey, nourished by our uniquely diverse native shrubs, could open new commercial opportunities for beekeepers as the industry tackles the parasitic varroa mite.

The findings could also help beekeepers manage healthier hives.

Frost works at the Tocal College Bee Research and Education Center near Newcastle; Here, Fernandes searches for pathogens in the hives and takes honey samples.

The study was funded by a NSW government bushfire recovery grant after the Black Summer fires destroyed 10,000 hives.

Buying local rather than imported honey helps support the bee population, which pollinates about 65 percent of our food crops, researchers said.

Australia’s major honey producers also pay a tax to fund research to improve hive health.

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