BROWN BEAR SALIVA IS FOUND TO BE USED TO RAPIDLY TEST ANTIBIOTICS, BEAR THAT IN MIND!

Pedro Martin, Cristina de Mateo, Carmen Martin and Claudia Martin

September 13th, 2018

A team of Rutgers University (the state University of New Jersey) led by the professor Konstantin Severinov have found out a way for rapidly testing life-saving antibiotics by using the saliva of East Siberian brown bear. This animal was chosen, in words of the main researcher “because it was captured way out in the wilderness where, it was assumed, microbes typical for the species and not affected by civilization are present”.

The process involves placing the bacteria from the bears mouth in an oil droplet and observe if it inhibits harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus or evenClostridium perfringens.This new technology allows microbial species to be tested on their own and therefore it can help scientist to discover new antibiotics against harmful bacteria.

Apart from being a huge revelation for human life, it´s also a new way to save time due to the fact that it just takes a couple of minutes for them to be tested. This novel process allows microbial species to be tested individually, which is the main advantage against the traditional process, which involves waiting for the bacteria to produce antibiotics in a Petri dish; definitely, more tedious besides being time consuming.

Thanks to the powerful technology used in this experiment, thousands of oil droplets with bacteria from the mouth´s bear were tested (which was captured in the wild and then released), and the scientist found one droplet with zero Staphylococcus aureus. The beneficial bacterium which was discovered, inhibits this deadly bacterium by producing a known antibiotic, established as amicoumacin.

Keywords: #oralmicrobiota #antibioticresistance #antibiotics #microbiology

Bates, T.B. (2018). Scientists use bear saliva to rapidly test for antibiotics

The super-fast screening technology could help to discover new treatments. Science Daily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180913082131.htm. Last visit: September 25th2018.