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Beard May Hold The Key To Fight Against Drug-Resistant Infections

by Shirley Johanna on Feb 5 2016 5:26 PM

Beard May Hold The Key To Fight Against Drug-Resistant Infections
A new research conducted by a microbiologist from the University College London (UCL) found that beard contain antibiotics of the future.
Antibiotic and microbial resistance could kill 10 million people a year. Researchers at the UCL are conducting experiments in this area to find a solution to the problem before it gets more serious.

The University conducted experiments, based on an earlier theory that most beards contain faeces; the bacteria believed to help produce a medicine to treat the resistant infections.

The researchers collected about a hundred bacteria isolates taken from 20 beards, around 25% of these showed antibiotic activity against their indicator strain. The bacteria could kill indicator strains such as E.coli and Candida albicans (yeast infections) and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

“What we do is grid out the individual bacteria on an agar plate which has been pre-inoculated with an indicator strain. And then we see if that indicator strain can grow right up to the individual colonies from the beards or from anywhere else that we've got these bacteria from, and we found, quite surprisingly, that the beard isolates were quite capable of killing the indicator strain that we have; showing that they actually produce antibiotics themselves”, said microbiologist Dr. Adam Roberts from UCL.

The team at UCL took samples from all over the country and had a collection of around 50 different bacteria, which can kill multiple indicator strains. The medicines devised would assist the doctors in treating antibiotic resistance in humans.

Source-Medindia


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