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The green-eyed tree frog and the growling grass frog (Photo credits: James Reardon and Grant Webster) |
ANSTO scientist, Dr Anton Le Brun (left), is studying the skin secretions of Australian frogs in the search for new antibiotics for treating infectious diseases.
Antibiotics are very useful for treating infections caused by bacteria.
Different classes of antibiotics kill bacteria by attacking different components of the cell; some antibiotics perforate the cell membrane, some inhibit the function of essential enzymes in the bacteria, while others stop protein synthesis within the bacterial cell.
While there are many antibiotics already available, many bacterial strains have become resistant to the antibiotics that are regularly used against them. Examples of antibiotic-resistant infections include strains of bacteria that cause golden staph, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea.
New antibiotics will be required to help treat infections now resistant to most of our current arsenal of medications.
Together with scientists from the University of Melbourne, Le Brun is studying two anti-microbial peptides from skin secretions of the green-eye tree frog (Litoria genimaculata) and the growling grass frog (Litoria raniformis).
Similar to some existing antibiotics, these peptides kill bacteria by attacking the cell membrane of the microbe. These peptides may turn out to be promising new antibiotics for treating drug-resistant infections.
To find out if these peptides can be developed into a new antibiotic, scientists want to know exactly how the peptides interact with the cell membrane of the bacteria. Scientists also need to ensure the peptides only kill bacterial cells and leave healthy human cells alone.
Scientists are using neutrons from ANSTO’s nuclear reactor to see how the frog peptides bind inside the bacterial cell membranes. Using this technique, scientists hope to see where and how different proteins, including the anti-microbial peptides, interact with the lipid bilayer of the bacterial cell membrane.
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Published: 15/02/2012