Frog skin may beat antibiotic resistance

Wednesday, 01 September 2010 17:36

Written by Editor

More than 100 potential bacteria-killing substances have been identified from more than 6,000 species of frog, which means frog skins could become an important source of new antibiotics to treat superbugs.

Researchers at the United Arab Emirates University are now trying to tweak the substances to make them less toxic and suitable for use as human medicines. They hope their work means some of the substances could be in clinical trials within five years.

Drug resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, are becoming an increasing problem worldwide, yet there is a lack of new treatments in the pipeline. Among the substances found by the researchers are a compound from a rare American species that shows promise for killing MRSA.

Another fights a drug-resistant infection seen in soldiers returning from Iraq. They said their work underscored the importance of preserving frog diversity .Research leader. Michael Conlon said frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents:

“They've been around 300 million years, so they've had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment. Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must."