Bee stings may provide a solution to overcome MRSA superbugs

News Medica Net
Bee stings may provide a solution to overcome the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria according to new research presented Monday by Belfast scientists at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin. A small protein found in bee venom called melittin can break open the protective skin which surrounds all cells, including cells in our own bodies, and the membranes which enclose bacteria. “This new approach could give us a whole new type of antibiotic, very different in action from conventional antibiotics, against which bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant,” says Alison Qua, a researcher at Queen’s University. “We are searching for new derivatives of melittin, which can still attack bacteria, but without bursting and killing our own cells.”