Gomesin, A Spider Peptide Fights Superbugs and Cancer

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from a spider improve the antimicrobial and anticancer properties, reveals a recent study published in ACS Chemical Biology.

As antibiotic resistance rises and fears over superbugs grow, scientists are looking for new treatment options. One area of focus is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which could someday be an alternative to currently prescribed antibiotics, many of which are becoming increasingly useless against some bacteria.

Drug Resistance – Antibiotic or Antimicrobial Resistance
Drug resistance is often a problem in malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and hospital acquired diseases. Judicious use of antibiotics can control the problem.

‘Gomesin functions as an antibiotic, which is a antimicrobial peptide (AMP) from the Brazilian spider Acanthoscurria gomesiana.’

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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million people become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the U.S. each year. Because no known antibiotics work against these bacteria, patients simply have to hope that their natural defenses eventually overcome the infection.

But some patients experience severe symptoms, landing them in a hospital, and in extreme cases, they could die.

Researchers are trying to find alternatives to traditional antibiotics, and one such possibility is a group of peptides called AMPs. These peptides are found in all plants and animals as a type of immune response and have been shown to be potent antibiotics in the laboratory.

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Gomesin, an AMP from the Brazilian spider Acanthoscurria gomesiana can function as an antibiotic, but it also has anticancer activity. When gomesin was synthesized as a circle instead of as a linear structure, these characteristics were enhanced.

Sónia Troeira Henriques and colleagues wanted to further boost the peptide's traits.

Natural Antibiotics to Fight Bacterial Infections
Fighting infections the natural way and preventing them is always more effective than consuming medicines and antibiotics to treat them.

The team made several variations of the cyclic gomesin peptide and found that some of these were 10 times better at killing most bacteria than the previously reported cyclic form.

In other experiments, the new AMPs specifically killed melanoma and leukemia cells, but not breast, gastric, cervical or epithelial cancer cells.

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Antibiotics like tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones used in the treatment of bacterial infections interact mainly with dairy products and lead to adverse side effects.

The researchers determined that the modified peptides killed bacteria and cancer cells in a similar way by disrupting the cells' membranes.

The group also notes that the modified AMPs were non-toxic to healthy blood cells.

Source-Eurekalert