Shrayana Ghosh, Amity University Kolkata
A new antifungal compound, discovered by the scientists of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison that can target the multidrug-resistant and potentially deadly strains of the fungal pathogen Candida auris without causing any toxic side effects in mice.
The team discovered a new molecule detected in the microbiome of a sea squirt from the Florida Keys. Turbinmicin was named after the sea squirt from which it was isolated, Esteinascidia turbinate, by the scientists. Turbinmicin discovery has been the tangible contribution of the five-year NIH grant of the NIH community for $30 million to find new antimicrobial products from bacteria that reside in neglected environments.
According to Tim Bugni, a PhD professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy, bacterias are a rich source of molecules. Unlike terrestrial ecosystems, the marine bacterial diversities are investigated scarcely for drug discovery. The discoveries of Bugni and colleagues described in the paper titled, “A marine microbiome antifungal targets urgent-threat drug-resistant fungi.”
Infectious fungal diseases are one of the deadliest threats to global health. The disease-causing fungi become resistant to the three classes of antifungal drugs available for clinical use, making previously treatable diseases lethal ( Candidiasis). Due to mining of the same soil-dwelling bacterias for antimicrobial drugs, the discovery of new antifungal agents has been challenging due to the presence of the same molecules. Thus, Bugni partnered with two other Ph.D. professors of UW, David Andes and, Cameron Currie to search and isolate bacterias from neglected environments of marine for the generation of antimicrobial compounds.
The experiment proceeded with the collection of ocean-dwelling invertebrates from the Florida Keys. Nearly 1500 strains of actinobacteria, were identified out of which only 174 strains, were selected. Then the Screening tested against drug-resistant Candida. The targeted Candida auris strain was resistant against all the three existing antifungal classes. When mice infected with Candida auris was given the antifungal Turbinmicin, it showed its effectiveness against the fungus. What made Turbinmicin stand out was the absence of any toxic side-effects. The discovery of turbinmicin is also evidence of the efforts of this partnership to explore new habitats and to test thousands of candidates for antimicrobial candidates.
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