| A survey of the Human Microbiome Project’s genomic database has revealed that the microbes living in and on healthy humans contain more than 3,000 sets of instructions for synthesizing small molecules, some of which may hold the key to future medical applications. |
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As the threat of antibiotic resistance grows, scientists are turning to the human body and the trillion or so bacteria that have colonized us — collectively called our microbiota — for new clues to fighting microbial infections. They’ve logged an early success with the discovery of a new antibiotic candidate from vaginal bacteria, reports Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) program sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to develop tools and datasets for the research community for studying the role of these microbes in human health and disease.
The first phase of HMP characterized the composition and diversity of microbial communities which inhabit major mucosal surfaces of the human body, including nasal passages, oral cavities, skin, gastrointestinal tract, and urogenital tract, and evaluated the genetic metabolic potential of these communities. The current phase of the project is focused on the creation of the first integrated dataset of biological properties from both the microbiome and host from cohort studies of microbiome-associated diseases.
"I’d always thought that drugs are discovered by drug companies, approved by the Food & Drug Administration, prescribed by a physician—and then they get to you. Human-associated bacteria are mounting an end run around that process." |
Even the placenta has recently been discovered to have it's own complex microbiome.
The human microbiota produces thousands of small molecules. Some have been discovered and tested, but by and large, very little is known about most of them. However, it could be well worth finding out more.
Doctors are already prescribing pharmaceuticals based on small molecules made by exotic bacteria from the earth and sea, meaning our own microbes could be an untapped and accessible source of novel drugs. But rifling through all of the microbiota’s natural products for a hit is like searching for a needle in a haystack.
To shrink that haystack, one team of scientists took a systematic, computer-assisted approach. They designed software to compare the microbiota’s collective genes, or microbiome, against genes that are already known or suspected to play a role in producing small molecules that help keep microbes, and maybe their hosts, healthy. The team found more than 3,000 such gene clusters. One of those, from the vaginal bacteria Lactobacillus gasseri, contains the code for a small molecule that is very similar to a recently discovered antibiotic now undergoing clinical testing. When the scientists tested the Lactobacillus molecule in the lab, they found it attacked gram-positive bacteria, some of which can cause human illness.
Results of the study have been published in the journal Cell.
“We are just at the beginning of the journey,” agrees George M. Weinstock, associate director of microbial genomics at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, a nonprofit research organization. But this study is an exciting and encouraging start, he says. “There will be many more stories like this.”
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News
The human microbiota produces thousands of small molecules. Some have been discovered and tested, but by and large, very little is known about most of them. However, it could be well worth finding out more.
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To shrink that haystack, one team of scientists took a systematic, computer-assisted approach. They designed software to compare the microbiota’s collective genes, or microbiome, against genes that are already known or suspected to play a role in producing small molecules that help keep microbes, and maybe their hosts, healthy. The team found more than 3,000 such gene clusters. One of those, from the vaginal bacteria Lactobacillus gasseri, contains the code for a small molecule that is very similar to a recently discovered antibiotic now undergoing clinical testing. When the scientists tested the Lactobacillus molecule in the lab, they found it attacked gram-positive bacteria, some of which can cause human illness.
Results of the study have been published in the journal Cell.
“We are just at the beginning of the journey,” agrees George M. Weinstock, associate director of microbial genomics at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, a nonprofit research organization. But this study is an exciting and encouraging start, he says. “There will be many more stories like this.”
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News
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