A new peptide has been found in fruit flies that can destroy bacteria. Photo: File
Illinois: American experts have discovered a natural peptide in a type of fruit fly that could pave the way for new antibiotics.
Experts from the University of Illinois have discovered a peptide of the same name, ‘drozokin’, in the Drosophila fly. This peptide binds to bacterial ribosomes and inhibits protein synthesis. As a result, the anti-human bacteria begin to die on their own. This way we can increase our antibiotic dosage.
The research is published in Nature Chemical Biology. Drosokin is now the second peptide from this research, and earlier in 2017, the first peptide was found in bees, named ‘apedisin’. After that, the experts conducted several experiments on Drosokin, changing the peptide hundreds of times and testing it on diseased bacteria. He saw that many times the bacteria started dying from it.
It is now expected that new antibiotic drugs can be made by furthering this research.
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