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New Class of Proteins Could Aid in Battle Against Bacteria As a child, Nick Carr dreamed of becoming a comic book artist. But after taking his first high school biology class, he decided that instead of creating cartoon superheroes, he would design biological ones. His latest design? Tiny bacteria-fighting proteins that could give doctors another weapon in their battle against antibiotic resistance.
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Nick Carr designs tiny bacteria-fighting proteins that could aid studies of antibiotic resistance. | "Right now, you go to the doctor and they give you several antibiotics," says Carr, a junior biological sciences major. "As a result, a lot of diseases are becoming resistant to these antibiotics."
To solve this problem, Carr has spent nearly two years studying tiny proteins called antimicrobial peptides that could serve as an alternative treatment to antibiotics. While antimicrobial peptides are naturally produced by humans and animals as a first line of defense against external germs, the peptides Carr is studying are made in a laboratory.
Under the direction of Jack Blazyk, professor of biomedical sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Carr has found that these synthetic peptides are capable of inhibiting or even destroying harmful pathogens by poking holes in their cellular membranes, apparently leaving human cells unharmed.
These proteins have unique properties that make it hard for bacteria to build a resistance to them, making them a potential candidate as a drug replacement for antibiotics. Carr currently is using four types of bacteria, including E. coli, as targets for the antimicrobial peptides to see how they will react with different bacteria.
"The peptides keep on getting better and better with every test," says Carr, who plans to present the study at the Biophysical Society Meeting in San Antonio in February. "We've gotten some antimicrobial activity that is comparative to or even better than in published studies."
Blazyk's lab has been investigating new antimicrobial peptides since the early 1990s with support from the National Institutes of Health and the state's Technology Action Fund. Ohio University submitted a patent application for the new peptide design in 2001.
Carr, who is funded by a Student Enhancement Award from Ohio University, will study antimicrobial peptides for at least another year. He expects to study genetics and molecular biology in graduate school after his graduation from Ohio University in 2004. And as progress on the antimicrobial peptides continues, the researchers hope the compounds will be developed commercially in the form of new antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections in humans and animals.
- Teresa Keysor |
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