25 year old woman invents potential solution to superbugs

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Leigh

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Jan 26, 2015
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A 25-year-old student has just come up with a way to fight drug-resistant superbugs without antibiotics.

The new approach has so far only been tested in the lab and on mice, but it could offer a potential solution to antibiotic resistance, which is now getting so bad that the United Nations recently declared it a "fundamental threat" to global health.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria already kill arpund 700,000 people each year, but a recent study suggests that number could rise to around 10 million by 2050.

In addition to common hospital superbug, methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA), scientists are now also concerned that gonorrhoea is about to become resistant to all remaining drugs.

But Shu Lam, a 25-year-old PhD student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has developed a star-shaped polymer that can kill six different superbug strains without antibiotics, simply by ripping apart their cell walls.

The science world is freaking out over this 25-year-old's answer to antibiotic resistance
 
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Splinty

Shake 'em off
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Dec 31, 2014
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Plenty of current antibiotics work by ripping apart cell walls. Bacteria evolved to survive this.

I wouldn't get overly psyched just yet.
 

Leigh

Engineer
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Jan 26, 2015
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Plenty of current antibiotics work by ripping apart cell walls. Bacteria evolved to survive this.

I wouldn't get overly psyched just yet.
Yeah the article says numerous times that it is still early days.
 

Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
First 100
Jan 17, 2015
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A 25-year-old student has just come up with a way to fight drug-resistant superbugs without antibiotics.

The new approach has so far only been tested in the lab and on mice, but it could offer a potential solution to antibiotic resistance, which is now getting so bad that the United Nations recently declared it a "fundamental threat" to global health.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria already kill arpund 700,000 people each year, but a recent study suggests that number could rise to around 10 million by 2050.

In addition to common hospital superbug, methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA), scientists are now also concerned that gonorrhoea is about to become resistant to all remaining drugs.

But Shu Lam, a 25-year-old PhD student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has developed a star-shaped polymer that can kill six different superbug strains without antibiotics, simply by ripping apart their cell walls.

The science world is freaking out over this 25-year-old's answer to antibiotic resistance
Manuka Honey...honey from bees pollinating tea tree
Special honey can defeat deadly MRSA infections
 
M

member 1013

Guest
Plenty of current antibiotics work by ripping apart cell walls. Bacteria evolved to survive this.

I wouldn't get overly psyched just yet.
I heard that antibiotics cause super resistant, “super autism”
 

Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
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Jan 17, 2015
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No time to piss around with honey when you have a mrsa infection.that shit goes from bad to worse fast
Some MRSA is stubborn to normal treatment.
Manuka Honey has shown to be effective on some of those strains

I bumped old thread and threw in my two cents...I don't think honey should be primary or initial treatment in any way
Therapeutic Manuka Honey: No Longer So Alternative

Personally, I would seek conventional treatment first.
Luckily I haven't yet had any MRSA

I just found it interesting.

  • Irish researchers discovered MRSA lurking in the venous leg ulcers of 16 people. Ten were treated with manuka honey and six with hydrogel medicine. After four weeks, manuka honey eliminated MRSA in seven out of 10 people treated with it. But only one of the six people treated with hydrogel got rid of MRSA.
  • Sometimes MRSA or other infectious bacteria grow in a form called biofilm, a common cause of chronic sinus infections. These biofilms can be drug-resistant. But a laboratory study found that manuka honey was better at killing MRSA biofilms and other biofilms than the antibiotics usually prescribed.
  • Welsh researchers discovered that MRSA treated with manuka honey loses its FabI protein. This vital protein helps create the fatty acids needed to build cell walls and other cell structures. Without this protein MRSA cells cannot reproduce and eventually die.
 
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1031

Guest
Some MRSA is stubborn to normal treatment.
Manuka Honey has shown to be effective on some of those strains

I bumped old thread and threw in my two cents...I don't think honey should be primary or initial treatment in any way
Therapeutic Manuka Honey: No Longer So Alternative

Personally, I would seek conventional treatment first.
Luckily I haven't yet had any MRSA

I just found it interesting.

  • Irish researchers discovered MRSA lurking in the venous leg ulcers of 16 people. Ten were treated with manuka honey and six with hydrogel medicine. After four weeks, manuka honey eliminated MRSA in seven out of 10 people treated with it. But only one of the six people treated with hydrogel got rid of MRSA.
  • Sometimes MRSA or other infectious bacteria grow in a form called biofilm, a common cause of chronic sinus infections. These biofilms can be drug-resistant. But a laboratory study found that manuka honey was better at killing MRSA biofilms and other biofilms than the antibiotics usually prescribed.
  • Welsh researchers discovered that MRSA treated with manuka honey loses its FabI protein. This vital protein helps create the fatty acids needed to build cell walls and other cell structures. Without this protein MRSA cells cannot reproduce and eventually die.
So how does one apply the substance? Eat and let it sort things out in the system, or......spread honey on themselves, or I'm out of ideas...
 

Leigh

Engineer
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Jan 26, 2015
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So how does one apply the substance? Eat and let it sort things out in the system, or......spread honey on themselves, or I'm out of ideas...
1) Take the pot of honey
2) Turn it sideways
3) ...
 

Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
First 100
Jan 17, 2015
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So how does one apply the substance? Eat and let it sort things out in the system, or......spread honey on themselves, or I'm out of ideas...
These were external lesions with mrsa, so I think it is topical application.

Apparently the honey has a natural hydrogen peroxide and other healing properties.
 

Coast

Land of the Prince Bishops
Oct 18, 2017
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I hope the find a cure for these drug resistant mother fuckers soon. I've had an MRSA infection get in my blood and cause sepsis, trust me, thats not fun.