Ameisen könnten bei der Antibiotika-Innovation den Menschen voraus sein. Ameisen produzieren mehrere Klassen antimikrobieller Wirkstoffe, die für verschiedene Krankheitserreger spezifisch sind: Pilze, gramnegative und grampositive Bakterien. Fast alle getesteten Ameisenarten enthielten Extrakte, die gegen einen menschlichen Superkeim – Candida auris – hochwirksam waren.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1110519
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I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article-abstract/146/4/blaf123/8362186
From the linked article:
Auburn University Assistant Professor of Entomology Clint Penick and a team of graduate students may have found that **ants are far ahead of humans in antibiotic innovation**. “In our study, we tested how ants use antibiotic compounds to fight off pathogens and asked why their chemical defenses remain effective over evolutionary time,” Penick said.
“Humans have relied on antibiotics for less than a century, yet many pathogens have already evolved resistance, giving rise to ‘superbugs.’’ Ants, by contrast, have been using antibiotics for tens of millions of years, and they might hold the key to using these powerful drugs more wisely.
The team looked at just six ant species, all found easily in the Southeastern United States.
“These are the ants that live in our backyards and live on college campuses,” Penick said. “And yet some of the most powerful antibiotics we found come from ants we typically consider pests, like fire ants.”
When the team tested whether extracts using different solvents showed antimicrobial activity, they found evidence that **ants do indeed produce multiple classes of antimicrobials**. “Just like us, ants seem to have different medicines in their medicine cabinet that they can try if the first one doesn’t work.”
The team found evidence that **ants produce compounds specific to different pathogens: some that target fungi, others that target gram-negative bacteria, and still others that act on gram-positive bacteria**.
While not the primary focus of the paper, the team found that **nearly all of the ant species tested killed an emerging human superbug — Candida auris. This pathogen has been spreading in hospitals with few options for control, yet ant extracts were highly effective against it.**
Makes sense. If your species lives short lives and beneficial evolutionary changes can appear in a few generations you can develop resistances to environmental factors much quicker than a species with individuals who tend to live 80 years or so. It’s the same reason some bacteria can develop immunity to antibiotics in weeks.