A look one thousand years into the past is revealing clues about how to develop the bacteria-fighting drugs of the future.
A concoction from a 10th century medical manuscript damaged cell membranes, altered the expression of disease-promoting genes and interfered with interbacterial communication when added to bacterial cultures, researchers report September 3 in mSphere. What’s more, three kinds of harmful bacteria developed resistance to the medicinal mixture much more slowly compared with conventional single-molecule antibiotics.
“The difference is remarkable,” says Omar El-Halfawy, a microbiologist at the University of Regina in Canada who was not involved in the research.
This impaired ability to develop resistance may occur because the medieval...
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