Ants used in antibiotic research
30 Jun 2014
Research to find the next-generation of antibiotic drugs will be unveiled in London tomorrow.
A group of researchers from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) school of biological sciences is using a colony of leafcutter ants to help solve the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
The group’s innovative research will be on display at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2014, which runs from the 1-6 July.
Lead researcher Matt Hutchings said: “Antibiotic resistance is a global health threat. Even common infections which have been treatable for decades can once again kill. Our research is motivated by an urgent need to find new antibiotics.
“We hope that these leafcutter ants will help us solve antibiotic resistance and provide us with the next generation of drugs.”
Hutchings says that leafcutter ants South and Central America evolved antibiotic use 50 million years ago.
“They love to eat a particular kind of fungus, which the worker ants protect using natural antibiotics produced by bacteria on their bodies. They’re basically using antibiotics as weed killers to help their fungus gardens grow,” Hutchings said.
“These ants have already helped us find two new antibiotics which we hope will be useful in clinical medicine.”
This research comes alongside the announcement that a similar group of researchers from UEA had discovered an “Achilles heel” in the defensive barrier which surrounds drug-resistant bacterial cells.
In that instance, the scientists suggested the findings could pave the way for the development of drugs that are capable of eliminating superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls, rather than attacking the bacteria itself.
