New Weapon to Kill Bacteria has been biologically engineered.

Recent studies have shown how bacteria can easily adapt and develop antibiotic immunity. The United Nations elevated one case to a crisis, on the same level as Ebola and HIV. A recent study by a UK commission estimates that, if no new antibiotics are made, bacterial infections will kill 10 million people each year by 2050. This problem is one connected to antibiotic use and the adaptation capabilities of bacteria,and as a solution, scientists look to antimicrobial peptides, naturally occurring proteins that can kill bacteria and other known microbes ;fungi and viruses. A team of researchers from MIT, the University of Brasilia, and the University of British Columbia just gave the natural protein a boost, engineering an antimicrobial peptide that could kill many types of bacteria, even those resistant to most antibiotics. The study reported in Scientific Reports, shows that the researchers have engineered a synthetic peptide called clavanin-MO, derived from a marine tunicate antimicrobial peptide [clavanin A], which exhibits potent antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties both in vitro and in vivo. see Clavanin-MO has improved bacterial killing abilities thanks to an added sequence of five amino acids making it more hydrophobic — allowing it to interact with and translocate to membranes more effectively. A test on mice showed that Clavanin-MO could kill strains of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus that are extremely antibiotic resistant. more