Manuka honey may kill bacteria by destroying key bacterial proteins. Dr Rowena Jenkins and colleagues from the University of Wales Institute – Cardiff investigated the mechanisms of manuka honey action and found that its anti-bacterial properties were not due solely to the sugars present in the honey. The work was presented this week 7-10 September, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA was grown in the laboratory and treated with and without manuka honey for four hours. The experiment was repeated with sugar syrup to determine if the effects seen were due to sugar content in honey alone. The bacterial cells were then broken and the proteins isolated and separated on a system that displayed each protein as an individual spot. Many fewer proteins were seen from the manuka honey-treated MRSA cells and one particular protein, FabI, seemed to be completely missing. FabI is a protein that is needed for fatty acid biosynthesis. This essential process supplies the bacteria with precursors for important cellular components such as lipopolysaccarides and its cell wall. The absence of these proteins in honey-treated cells could help explain the mode of action of manuka honey in killing MRSA.
How manuka honey helps fight infection
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Hi, just wondering if any one can help me or let me know if something similar has happened to any of you.
On the 19th of dec 2008 i had a section and had our third child a beautiful baby girl. Now to cut a very long story short my sister had her baby 10 weeks earlier and contracted MRSA. So did her new little son. This was in the same hospital where i had my daughter also the same gyne.
When i found this out i was quite upset. I spoke to my gyne and asked should i be swabbed first to see if i was a carrier i was told NO that starting that would only start madness of everyone wanting to be swabbed first.
Well i should’ve stood my ground because i got MRSA and so did my baby.
Now i cleared quite fast but my daughter is still a carrier.
I go to the hospital about every month and to date she still has it. She is nearly 9 months old now and my sisters son is nearly a year old and is still infected also.
This is all a bit if a night mare. My husband was to have a knee operation in an other hospital and was found to be a carrier too so could not have it.
We got no help from the hospital, they just said how do u know u got it here.
Another important thing to know is my sister and i had different strains of MRSA.
Has this happened to anyone else. I would love to hear from people if it has.
Regards Jean