Laura R. Marks
Known for his painful skin infections as well as its namesake resistance methicillin, MRSA is a scary germ in a world where older antibiotics do not always work. But now researchers have managed to make the MRSA methicillin sensitive again by combining the drug with a protein complex first discovered in breast milk. In an article published today in PLOS ONE , the researchers show that the complex, known as HAMLET (for lethal human alpha-lactalbumin made for cells tumorales- it is versatile) helped methicillin kill MRSA in the nose of the mice at a dose of 10 micrograms, while antibiotic alone was ineffective even at 10 times this level. HAMLET also makes ordinary bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics, so that only a fraction of the drug is necessary. This image shows a Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterial healthy cell (left) next to a blown apart with the help of HAMLET (right). Bacteria seem to have a difficult time developing resistance to HAMLET, and the complex has no toxic side effects because therapeutic doses are not more than the baby drank the milk. This means HAMLET antibiotic cocktail and could be the following approach to scary superbugs.
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