Seaweed: Possible New Weapon Against Germs

This Australian seaweeed could yield a new treatment for cholera and perhaps a whole new type of antibiotic medicine, scientists said yesterday.

Researchers have found that compounds known as furanones - isolated from the seaweed Delisea pulchra - can prevent the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their disease-causing mechanisms.

Furanones do not kill such microbes but simply "jam" their ability to send signals to each other, the scientists report. Furanones might work against other bacteria.

"This is very exciting as these are the first antimicrobials of their type that have been shown to be effective," said Diane McDougald at the University of New South Wales. "The fact that furanones prevent bacterial communication means that they may be effective against a wide range of bacteria that have communication systems, such as the bacteria that cause golden Staph infections and tuberculosis," she says.

That would be useful because many bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. They do so, scientists believe, through natural selection -- those that survive an antibacterial onslaught create progeny that are resistant.

"Because furanones don't kill the bacteria, there is no selection pressure for them to develop resistance," McDougald said. "Indeed, in a million years of evolution, no natural resistance has been developed by bacteria to these furanones in the natural environment."

The discovery has only involved laboratory tests. Trials involving mice are planned.

-- LiveScience Staff

Image Credit: University of New South Wales