Novel bacterial gel formulated to treat fungal infections

By ISRAEL21c —— Bio and Archives October 7, 2018

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

The incidence of fungal infections is rising due to factors such as the aging population, widespread use of antibiotics and possibly even global warming.

Most people will experience a fungal infection at least once in their lifetime, but today’s oral antifungal medications don’t always work well and come with a spectrum of negative side effects ranging from headaches and rash to liver and kidney toxicities. Now, researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering reveal in the journal Advanced Functional Materials that they successfully cured fungal infections in mice using a soil-dwelling bacterium. The target fungus in the study was Candida, a type of yeast that is one of the primary sources of fungal infections. Candida resides in most people’s bodies harmlessly, but it can grow out of control under certain conditions. The researchers in Haifa found that bacteria called Bacillus subtilis naturally produces and secretes substances that inhibit Candida growth. “Our first challenge was to develop a transport system that would enable application of the live bacteria on the infected lesion without impairing their ability to proliferate and secrete their therapeutic substances in the target site,” said lead researcher Assistant Professor Boaz Mizrahi, who also is a member of the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute and Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering. -- More...