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Scientists discover new antibiotic 100 times stronger than penicillin

smh.com.au — Scientists have discovered a bacteria-fighting compound 100 times more effective than penicillin - in wallaby milk.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 23, 2006

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  • naien, on 10/12/2007, -7/+51Talk about Modern Life.;)
  • ZHmike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21dallen is exactly right. Antibiotics kill bacteria. They have no effect at all on a virus. Looks like greenbox needs to retake biology 101
  • superal1394, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21ahh, rocko...gooood times

    anyway, bout damn time, i was worried that my projected 120 year life span was in jepordy by the next killer bacteria.
  • dallen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17^ You might want to look up the effect of an antibiotic on a virus.

    There isn't one
  • mistermoose, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15So we'll have some real super-bugs...
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15its all a stop gap solution until we develop germ/virus killing nano bot armies....
  • mikemil828, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Wallaby Darned....
  • dallen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14greenbox - Why would a virus have to overcome an antibiotic?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Considering pharm companies pretty much stopped looking for new anti-boitics 20 years ago (Male enhancement and anti-depression drugs are much more lucrative) I found this as a nice surprise.
  • SkeletaLlama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11It's pretty amazing what they're finding in Australia these days. I just read about Melaluca oil, Australian tea tree oil being one of the strong antiseptics in the world and definitely the most powerful naturally occuring one. Now we have a natural and powerful antibiotic. Australia also has the world's most powerful venoms from snakes, octopuses, spiders and the world's only venomous mammal. So you either get life or death in Australia, but either way you'll get the most powerful form of it available.
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"is this really a good idea? people will just abuse the drug like penicillin, and bacteria will be resistant to it, then its on the look again."

    Likely because of this habit, this drug will be sactioned for use only against resistant bacterial strains, and will be given at high enough dosages to insure bacterial death and most likely reserved to in-hospital only use. (For current examples, anti-biotics like Vancomycin are already treated with this type of "security" around them, as they are the strongest things we've currently got to fight infection, Vancomycin-resistant bacteria could prove to be quite dangerous [as is the case with VISA/VRSA, but luckily it is still very rare]).
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Australians will have like a monopoly on this stuff...

    time to invest in wallaby's
  • greenbox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I'm allergic to penicillin. does that mean I'm gonna be a hundred times more allergic to this stuff?
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I can just see the headline in the Victoria paper:

    Wallabys milked by *****!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Don't believe the bird flu hype.
  • XxUNDEROATHxX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5ima buy me a wallaby farm...
  • kai05yang, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8is this really a good idea? people will just abuse the drug like penicillin, and bacteria will be resistant to it, then its on the look again.
  • wabbiteh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Not sure the word "stronger" is correct in the title... it should probably be 'effective', as in the article summary.
    It's not like it arm-wrestles the bacteria into submission. :P
  • motorhappy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Doesn't bacteria only evolve resistances when it hasn't been killed off by the antibiotic. If we only kill the really tough to treat stuff with these drugs, and only on rare occasions, it doesn't seem like it would become immune. Look at all the ways nature kills us off and we have only evolved resistances to some of them.
  • thehumbug, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3No, this is just good news. We'll have a period of time where we can fight off bacterial infections. Over time the bacteria will become immune to it, but they will affect us then the same they do now. Are we "toast" now? We aren't going to be "toast" then.
  • alastria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I hope the mass use of antibiotics the past 100 years (and the bacteria defeating them) will teach these people to use this a little more judiciously. Like, only for real bad infections. Flesh-eating bacteria, stuff like that.

    If this stuff starts showing up in hand soap, I'm officially going to get worried.
  • geekee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So now we'll over prescribe this anti-biotic, causing selection of bacteria that are immune to it. Bad news for Wallaby's. Are they going to become extinct when their anti-biotic is no longer effective?
  • c0r3file, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3
    Too bad some guy with a rifle just shot the last living wallaby! CRIKEY! =(

  • Ahheck01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm going to type what everyone thought when they read your comment, in addition to rolling their eyes:

    lol.
  • davidmonaghan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To all of those worried about stronger antibiotics creating stronger bacteria I must say this; Think of antibiotics like a brand new high security lock on your front door. Because this high security lock will spawn locksmiths who can crack the system, do you propose that new locks not be made or used? Here's what happened as far as I see it; Burglars came, we put locks on, burglars learned how to pick lock, we put codes on. Now yes, the new system will get cracked most likely but as many have stated, a new system will be devised to counter-act this (we have done and will do this many times in all areas of security).
  • sdcdiggs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Too bad it can't take down the Avian Flu
  • synaesthesia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Great, now I have to worry about skeezers giving me the super-clap...
  • AlphaEta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I agree with your statement, I should clarify that I was talking specifically about antimicrobials of animal origin (most of which are peptides) when I noted this compound’s broad spectrum. In this respect, it is noteworthy. As far as inhibiting “superbugs” the article states that: “Compound AGG01 was found to be effective against a relative of the hospital superbug MRSA, or golden staph…” A RELATIVE OF MRSA! Does it actually inhibit MRSA? Probably wasn’t tested! At any rate, these obligatory “save the world” statements are always made when new antimicrobials are found. The reality is that the dissemination of antibiotic resistance should be stymied through sound policy decisions (i.e. stop feeding sub-therapeutic doses to livestock, stop overprescribing to people with viral infections, patient education, etc…). Otherwise, we’ll be in a constant struggle to keep ahead of resistance with new drugs. Not to say that these two strategies are mutually exclusive, but it will be a lot easier to keep currently available antibiotics effective than find new antimicrobials that are wildly overpriced so that pharma can keep profits high!
  • SkeletaLlama, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5That's the first thing I thought when I read this. In fifty years we'll be reading about how they've become resistant to this super antibiotic and now there's nothing we can do to save the world as the superbugs kill everything off. It's really bad that every advance we make in science to fix a problem creates at least one more that's an order of magnitude worse than the one we had before.
  • davidmajor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3MRSA is there because we use antibiotics too much. I don't want to see what we'll raise after wide use of these wallaby antibiotics.
  • mikeazorin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2BUT in the long run this means that superbugs will be extremely powerful if wallaby milk thing is used to combat them.
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Luckily there are a lot of different classes of anti-biotic, and it's quite likely this is in a class all of its own (meaning that it's likely won't be allergic to it).
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hopefully this will be the last time anyone needs to say this in this thread:

    Antibiotics do not effect viruses. That is why when you take an antibiotic when you have a cold or the flu, you usually don't start feeling any better [I say usually because some people /think/ they have the flu, and by taking antibiotics succumb to the placebo effect and feel better]. The reason we have this ongoing need to find stronger antibiotics are because of people who DO take antibiotics whenever they have the cold or flu, and because of people who don't finish their antibiotics when they start to feel better (though the entire baterial culture might not be killed, which can lead to resistant strains being created).

    Lessons to learn here: if you have the cold or a flu, do not get antibiotics. Viruses are unharmed by antibiotics.
  • AlphaEta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This could be an important find, especially considering that this compound has a relatively broad spectrum of activity (it appears to inhibit Gm and Gm- bacteria). However, I guess we'll have to wait and see if this will be added to the long list of antimicrobials isolated from animals (frogs, insects, echinoderms, etc...) that haven't made it to market. I'm hopeful though!
  • 12Volts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wallabies were pests in New Zealand - until we heard about this. They're now lovely animals who will replace sheep as our new export industry. If anyone finds a benefical side effect of Possum Poo - we're going to be a very rich nation.
  • paapereira, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallaby
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The stuff must be really hard to collect, because it's hard to get close to wallabys with those giant fangs.
  • v0id, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I was thinking the same thing, im allergic to penicillin as well. Recently I had to take Keflex for a root canal but I was a little worried since some ppl have side reactions to that as well. but im still alive so guess its ok for me to take it ^-^
  • thehumbug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Viruses are capsules with DNA in them that merely float around until they crash into a cell. When they crash into a cell it spills all of its DNA into it and reprograms the cell into making more viruses. That's the basic virus. It can reproduce like a life form but otherwise it's just a pile of DNA floating around.
  • existent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1According to dictionary.com, there are 21 possible definitions of strong. Why do you feel the need to force the word into only one possible usage?
  • ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No wonder i saw those australian aboriginals sucking on Wallaby's *****. They must have been very sick. (just try to picture it)
  • existent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How about, just vaccinating the people who are in contact with the birds?
  • slowth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Vancomycin is quite effective agains MRSA and it's extremely cheap when compared to other antibiotics. Linezolid is also effective against MRSA, but it costs around $150 per treatment day, so it hasn't been widely accepted. If this new antibiotic actually makes it to the market and is expensive, then it will never sell. Don't waste your money on this stock.
  • pollicis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yes, it could be important, but not for the reasons you stated. There are plenty of effective broad spectrum antibiotics already on the market, and there are plenty of narrow spectrums available as well. That's why we've only seen a handful of new drugs in this area in the past 20 years, for example, Linezolid. You would be crazy to use a new drug that is probably 100x more expensive on a organism that is susceptible to old drugs like PCN/cephs. The importance of finding new drugs is to cover newer resistant bugs like MRSA or VRE.
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd personally rather them focus their time on drugs that work on life threatening ilnesses like drug-resistant bacteria, than Viagra or drugs to combat "Restless Leg Syndrome".
  • Brian48216, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Dr. *****. That is all.
  • kai05yang, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4soon every bacteria that was treated with antibiotics will have resistance, that is the law of evolution.
  • pollicis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually, I sort of disagree with your analogy. While there are some uses of prophylactic antibiotics (ex: increased risk of infective endocarditis post-dental surgery in patients with valvular defects such as those found in rheumatic fever, aortic stenosis...etc), the majority of antibiotics prescribed these days are post-infection. To follow your analogy, in most cases, you give the antibiotic to kill the burglar already in your house, not to keep him out. Also, when I say "kill", I should mention there are actually 2 broad classes of antibiotics: those that kill (bacteriocidal) and those that just keep bugs at bay (bacteriostatic).
  • Alphabet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bird flu isn't a problem yet. Even though it can infect from 1)birds to humans, it can't infect from 2)humans to humans. Scientists are concerned about that 2nd step, since when that happens, millions will die.

    Therefore, the best way to prevent it is by throwing all dead birds to an isolated spot away from humans. So even if the bird dies, and if the flu contains a mutation that allows human to human infection, it won't matter since there are no humans nearby to infect.
  • NewEvolution, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Hell, viruses aren't even ALIVE technically.
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