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Science

Seaweed Antibiotics? 40

Posted by michael from the nori-is-good-for-you dept.
Dan Gaffney writes "A new treatment for cholera and perhaps a new type of antibiotic medicine may emerge from compounds discovered in an Australian seaweed. University of New South Wales researchers have found that furanones - isolated from the seaweed Delisea pulchra - can prevent the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their disease-causing mechanisms. Furanones don't kill such microbes but simply "jam" their ability to signal each other, meaning their use less likely to create the drug-resistance problems."
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Seaweed Antibiotics? More

Seaweed Antibiotics?

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  • small note. Next time you want to pimp your findings on slashdot, proofread. It'll make people take you more seriously. "their [IS] use less likely"
    • Small note: Next time you want to pimp your grammatical skills on Slashdot, proofread. It'll make people take you more seriously. "[T]heir use [is] less likely...."

  • They signal each other? (Score:3, Funny)

    by nonregistered ( 639880 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:10AM (#11051330) Homepage
    As in adapting to our frequencies?

  • Drug Resistance (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ld_hrothgar ( 755793 ) <ld_hrothgar@@@yahoo...com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:14AM (#11051359) Homepage
    If the Doctors would stop handing out antibiotics like it were candy (and the people would take them correctly! No more "I feel better so I'll SAVE the last three doses" crap) we wouldn't have a drug resistance problem in the first place.
    • If the Doctors would stop handing out antibiotics like it were candy


      Did you make this observation on your own, or were you given this observation by an "expert"?

      Are you a medical professional or merely miming the attitude of an "activist"?

      Funny how /.'ers know more about every industry than the people who spend their lives in those professions.

      • I worked for several years as the office manager for a Medical Transcription service, I have several friends that are Medical Doctors and my girlfriend is in pre-med. I've seen the antibiotics flow like water around here where more and more people get drug resistant bugs every year.
        • If you were a qualified person (or had a qualified qirlfriend at least), you would have know that the real problem with bug resistance is not happening because primary care physicians are overprescribing antibiotics.

          Some Staphs that grow and infect patients in hospitals have already seen every known antibiotics including Vanco. It is probably poor hospital hygiene combined with under-use of antibiotics in the hospital (especialy on long-term hospitalised patients).

      • Re:Drug Resistance (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
        Funny how the guy *is* a medical expert, and how his rant is consistent with the informed conventional wisdom. Funny how you betray your own attitude with your oblique reference to an "activist", like that's something bad. Passivists are funny when they actually dare to do something, and look stupid.
        • I guess it doesn't do to question authority.
          • When they're right. Go ahead - question away. And waste your time looking like a fool. The poster questioned *that* the guy is an authority, and he *is*. His argument was accurate anyway, and the whiny attack on his authority fell flat. How about an actual argument with the premise of irresponsible overprescription? Of course not - that's not as easy as blurting some corporate cable news show propaganda when someone questions *the status quo*. Stop running in circles to look smart with rhetorical tricks, an

            • OK... now on /. an office manager is a medical expert.

              Yes Doc, I did not take the medicine. But it was on the expert advise of my medical transcriptionists office manager... And I got a second opinion from his GF, but that's OK, cuz she's a college student. And it is common knowledge that antibiotics are over perscribed. So I decided to ignore the advise of a professional and take the advise of some poseur.

              Yes, I did train as an EMT several years ago, but decided I hated working with losers (drunk
              • You are a clown. (It's not a flamewar until someone goes ad hominem.) It doesn't take a pharmacologist to see doctors prescribing antibiotics without restraint. Even doctors willing to break the "white wall" of silence lament how much harder their jobs are becoming. So you're spewing contrarian complaints without basis.
        • Funny, I remember as a kid going to the doctor, getting my throat swabbed to culture for strep, and after the culture came back positive, only THEN my mom getting the prescrip for penicillin.

          We've taken our kids to the doctor, they look, but no cultures taken. "Here's some amoxycillin." At least my wife's a nurse, and they do the full course.

    • Bacteria have normal defense mechanisms (Score:4, Informative)

      by Engineer-Poet ( 795260 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @01:23PM (#11052729) Homepage Journal
      Antibiotics are not the only things that bacteria have to contend with; they are food for many organisms in the wild, and they have defense mechanisms that they trigger when they are numerous enough to take advantage. The formation of biofilms is one such action.

      Bacteria detect this critical density by sensing molecular emissions from other bacteria. If you make a molecular antagonist for the receptor site that is used to sense these molecules (a molecule which binds to the receptor but does not activate it, like Naloxone binds to opiate receptor sites without activating them) you can shut down the molecular signalling and stop the problematic bacterial behavior. This doesn't kill the bacteria so much as it leaves them with their defenses down.

      For a bit more information on this, see this Wired article. [wired.com]

      Incidentally, molecular jamming appears to be able to defeat certain antibiotic resistance mechanisms. One can imagine a triple-threat treatment for resistant infections: antibiotic, biofilm and antibiotic resistance jammers and viral bacteriophages. The staphyllococci wouldn't know what hit them.

    • If the Doctors would stop handing out antibiotics like it were candy (and the people would take them correctly! No more "I feel better so I'll SAVE the last three doses" crap) we wouldn't have a drug resistance problem in the first place.

      Too right. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone saying they'd just trot out some of the antibiotics from their last infection to treat a new one.

      It invariably leads to trying to explain to them they shouldn't have any left over in the first place.

      • Doctors hand out antibiotics like candy? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by KWTm ( 808824 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @02:34PM (#11053644) Journal

        "If the Doctors would stop handing out antibiotics like it were candy (and the people would take them correctly! No more "I feel better so I'll SAVE the last three doses" crap) we wouldn't have a drug resistance problem in the first place."

        You are right. You are so right, in fact, that it verges on a straw man argument. Or maybe I see this more than the average person.

        From the doctor's perspective, I see patients all the time who complain of infectious symptoms. I have a choice: the slow way or the fast way. The slow way is: I explain to them why it is important to finish the full course of antibiotics. More likely, though, I spend the time to tell them why it is more likely that they have a viral illness where they don't need antibiotics. If I do that, then I need to make sure that they really don't have a bacterial infection (or at least one that should be treated). Even if I am confident that they don't need antibiotics, I need to show to the patient that I took their concern seriously, or else they will simply ignore my medical advice and go to another doctor, who might do it the fast way.

        The fast way is: I write a prescription for "amoxicillin 875mg PO bid; mit: #20". Done! Boy, that was fast. Zip in, zip out. I could see 10 patients an hour this way, and make so much money that I could afford to buy Windows XP. In this day and age, you add a disclaimer to the patient: "It's mostly likely a virus where the antibiotic doesn't work, but just in case ... I want to make sure you get better, you know." There, now you can't be classified as "doctor who tells patients that antibiotics will treat viruses."

        I almost invariably choose the slow way, but the choice is not always that black & white. Not only is there time pressure to do it the fast way (think about this the next time you complain about waiting room times), but there is pressure from the patients who demand the antibiotic. Even for these demanding patients, I try to explain why the antibiotic is probably not effective, hoping to wear away at their resistance to conservative (non-medical) treatment, knowing full well that I will end up writing a prescription, at least this time.

        It's not all the patient's fault either. Suppose you are a coder working for EA Games or something. You need to be at work, but you have infectious symptoms. You want something to make it go away, quickly and reliably. Can you be blamed for wanting an antibiotic? You know, *just in case* it's bacterial. And, geez, it's been 7 days of sore throat already --surely a visit to the doctor is justified? And surely you don't want to walk out of there with the doctor merely patting you saying, "There there, there there"? Besides, what good are drug benefits if you don't take advantage of them?

        Maybe you decide to get the antibiotic, but you won't take them if your symptoms improve --that way you don't overuse antibiotics, right? Two months down the road, George in the next cubicle goes home sick with strep throat during one of those Death March sessions, and you can't afford to go home sick either! Hey, didn't you have some antibiotics from last time that you never used? You'd go to a doctor and all, but, geez, you're already behind schedule with 12-hour days. Might as well use the antibiotics before they expire.

        You see, even with an educated populace it's difficult to do the right thing, simply because the acute problem is so much more overwhelming than the abstract concept of "population epidemiology". Surely if you pop that one antibiotic, it wouldn't cause spiraling Medicare costs ten years down the road? If this is so, what can you expect of citizens of impoverished countries who get these magical pills that make things all better?

        • Why don't you prescribe them antivirals then?

          You'd have to make sure to tell the patient, antibiotics are for bacteria, and antivirals are for viruses... you have a virus, so you have two options: wait until your flu is over, or get an antiviral prescription.

          The first bill from the pharmacy should "cure" the situation pretty fast.
        • Actual conversation I had once:

          "It looks like a viral infection. I'm going to prescribe some antibiotics."
          "If it's viral, aren't antibiotics useless?"
          "Well, sometimes they help."
          "Really? How?"
          "Well, it's really just sort of as a placebo."
          "But now that you've told me that, it's not going to work as a placebo, is it?"
          "No, I guess not."

          I actually felt embarassed for the guy. The question I didn't think of until I was out of the office was, "Don't you have PLACEBOS you can give out as placebos? Why are you gi
    • I think you'll find the use of anti-biotics as growth promoters in meat production is more of a problem.

  • Antibiotics (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bloodredsun ( 826017 ) <martin@nosPam.bloodredsun.com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:25AM (#11051461) Journal
    The discovery of a new type of antibiotics is always welcome. The overuse of the common goups such as cephalosporins, and penicillins have contributed to bacterial resistance with the resulting appearance of bacteria such as MRSA.
    It will be interesting to see how broad a spectrum these furanones will turn out to have or how well they are in combination with other drugs, as well as their pharmacokinetics and tolerance. This research looks positive but it's early days.
    One point though, the poster should state their involvement in the study and also that of Biosignal.

  • ugh (Score:2)

    by XO ( 250276 )
    Jesus christ, it's "ancient news day" on slashdot.. I don't know how much more of this I can take, and I'm only two articles in so far today.
  • With other marine creatures in jeopardy due to environmental changes such as increased water temperate and over fishing, there would be some sort of poetic justice happening if this species of seaweed were to die out just as its uses become apparent to the great unwashed masses.

    Wouldn't it be nice if its commercial value led to the preservation of the world's oceans and responsible use thereof rather than the currect practice of exploitation?

    Well, I can dream.

    • Nope it will die... but first we'll synthesize the 'active ingredient' but this man-made version will only work at 5% effectiveness so as to provide 'treatment' but never a 'cure'. Oh yeah, it will get patented too. Then Science will claim to have invented it and that God doesn't exist because otherwise He would have saved the plant through a 'miracle' and all memory of a natural and highly potent medicine will cease to exist in the common conciousness and we'll be looking for the next great wonder to explo
    • "Wouldn't it be nice if its commercial value led to the preservation of the world's oceans and responsible use thereof"

      Yep, but thesedays it's more like:

      "Here comes the science - now for the patents; you wanna use these compounds to save humanity - it'll cost you."

  • Too early to be news (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ianchaos ( 160825 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:50PM (#11052370)
    While any new antimicrobial drug would be very welcome in this time of increase resistance and decreased antibiotic innovation, this research has just started the animal testing phase and as such there are no live trials yet. If furanones disable the ability of microbes to send signals to each other this could have a very detrimental effect on our health. Our bodies are partialy controled by the symbiotic relationship we have with certain benevolent bacteria that we carry around with us. The human intestinal microbiota plays an important role in maintaining human health by preventing colonization by pathogens and increased nutrient uptake by the body. While antibiotics are somewhat targeted toward a specific type of bacteria, furanones disrupt basic microbial communication. I'm not saying this wont work, just that without live testing this is way too early to be news.
    • While antibiotics are somewhat targeted toward a specific type of bacteria, furanones disrupt basic microbial communication. I'm not saying this wont work, just that without live testing this is way too early to be news.

      It could be argued that these signalling inhibitors might be less disruptive than the classic antibiotics. When doctors administer broad-spectrum antibiotics (fluoroquinolones like Cipro, for example) it just firebombs the entire GI tract, and kills off a lot of the beneficial intestinal

    • Interesting. You could say that, these beneficial bacteria of the intestinal tract may not be affected from a loss of communication from fellow bacteria, while at the same time the pathogenic bacteria will stop producing toxins and eventually will be overcome by body's natural defenses. But, this is pure speculation; the case is too complex and will be solved by animal experiments. This looks promising, solely because it does not cause a major selection pressure on bacteria as a killer antibiotic.
  • Careful though, it'll only be 5 or 6 shots before they adapt to our phaser frequency modulation.

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