Health & Life science
Excessive use of antibiotics for human and animal husbandry is known to promote the selection and development of bacterial strains showing resistance to antibiotics.
Excessive use of antibiotics in human and animal husbandry is known to promote the selection and development of bacterial strains showing resistance to antibiotics.
Pathogens cause millions of infections and worldwide economic damage every year. The current ("gold" standard) detection methods of bacterial, viral or suspect cells in samples are not optimal. The current method is time consuming. Rapid pathogenic tests are not sensitive enough to detect very low numbers of cells in fluids, without an initial separation and concentration procedure. CBMR Scientific Inc. is currently developing a real time sensor system, this is a peptide-based coating method that is able to bind particles to an increased extent. It works like a magnet that attracts iron particles. The sensor selectively extracts particles, thereby rendering a high concentrate with specifically sought-after properties.
Possible other applications for AMP's are to eradicate pathogens from body surfaces of colonized patients, or to coat medical devices as a nonaggressive bio disinfectant to prevent adherence and biofilm formation of micro-organisms in immuno-compromised patients. The ability to discriminate between bacteria makes them candidates for use as molecular recognition elements in pathogen detection platforms. Several AMP's and analogs are capable of penetrating human monocytes-derived dendritic cells (DC), a quality that makes them good candidates for being a carrier of epitope-based vaccines. At moderate concentrations AMP's can penetrate DC's easily and activate DC's without showing toxicity. Also, a possible role of AMP's in the detection and treatment of meningitis is proposed as these peptides pass the blood-brain-barrier by itself or via the Lf receptor and gain access to the brains. This is of importance to study the effects of such infections on the development of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, peptides could be use to combat the drug resistant pathogens that colonize the host during anti-cancer therapy. Industrial (hospital) approaches could be for coatings of surgical implants and drains to reduce the infection level or prevent infections. Some AMP's are now under study to promote wound healing. For this purpose, to produce large amounts of peptides, large scale production of Lf and derivates thereof generated from milk proteins are under development. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to continue with the research on developing antimicrobial drugs to address infections caused by drug-resistant micro-organisms such as viruses, fungi, parasites, and intracellular pathogens. These diseases are widespread and if AMP's are developed for general applications, it will have the potential to enter into areas of wider impact, especially in the developing world.
As a result, the prophylactic use of antibiotics in animals has been banned in Europe and is beginning to be strongly questioned in many other regions of the world. In chicken farming industry high amounts of antibiotics are used to prevent infections such as Salmonella and Campylobacter (bacteria that cause diarrhea in chickens).
Besides suppressing infections, antibiotics serve as a growth stimulator: animals are growing faster (weight stimulation) with less food and can be slaughtered earlier. The large quantity of antibiotics comes into the environment via the urine and feces and contaminates air, water and soil in the vicinity of the chicken farm. Eating chicken meat leads to the increase of antibiotics in humans. Some of these antimicrobials are important drugs used to treat human infections. Once antimicrobial resistance occurs, a drug may no longer be effective in treating various illnesses or infections.
CBMR Scientific Inc., offers solutions Incso that antibiotics can be livestock can be used at a much lower dose and cost with the same yield. The immune system of chickens in the first hours of their lives is strengthened by spraying a resistor-enhancing product and by giving them different composition of chicken feed. These new ingredients also offer improved effectiveness on their own compared to other solutions and they provide very interesting synergies with other natural ingredients. The company aims at capitalizing on its first mover's advantage and its proprietary know-how on product applications to become a major supplier of this class of ingredients to producers of animal feed supplements and animal food producers.
This means that the risk of antibiotic resistance in humans decreases.