Antibiotics are increasingly losing effectiveness against certain pathogens; now scientists have found a bacteria-killing spider peptide that could help remedy this trend.
As antibiotic resistance rises and fears over superbugs grow, scientists are looking for new treatment options. One area of focus is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which could someday be an alternative to currently prescribed antibiotics, many of which are becoming increasingly useless against some bacteria. Now, a team reports in ACS Chemical Biology that they have improved the antimicrobial — and anticancer — properties of an AMP from a spider.
