A protein found in oysters has been identified as an outright killer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and to strengthen antibiotics’ overall effectiveness.
The discovery was made by scientists in Australia who found the protein in the bivalve’s ‘hemolymphs,’ cells that act a little like blood cells in humans.
Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pyogenes, may not mean much to the average person, but the common infectious diseases they cause probably will.
They can result in STAPH infections, pneumonia, and scarlet fever and strep throat respectively, but they are also three species that the Sydney rock oyster’s blood-like fluid seems to be capable of treating.
It makes sense oysters would have potent, endogenous, antimicrobial secretions since they are filter feeders: slurping in liters of water every day, keeping the nutrients, and expelling the rest.
Their antimicrobial compound prevents bacteria that cause diseases like those already mentioned from forming colonies protected by biofilms—a substance that allows them to glom together and stick to membranes and tissues whilst protecting them from antibiotic drugs.
“We often think about bacteria just floating around in the blood,” study co-author Kirsten Benkendorff, a marine scientist at Southern Cross University, tells the Guardian.
“But in reality, a lot of them actually adhere to surfaces. The advantage of having something that disrupts the biofilm is… it’s stopping all of those bacteria from attaching to the surfaces. It’s releasing them back out into the blood, where then they can be attacked by antibiotics.”
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The oyster protein on its own killed S. pneumoniae and S. pyogenes, but when combined with antibiotic drugs, the effect was between 2 and 32 times greater, depending on the drug and bacteria.
Pharmacologists are speedily trying to develop new antibiotics as those overprescribed for decades across the world are rapidly losing efficacy. Anything that can extend the viability of these existing products will help curb what many scientists are claiming will become the largest danger to an individual’s health from an infectious disease for the next 25 years.
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Benkendorff and her team are continuously testing the oyster protein for its toxicity in human lung tissue and blood cells where it would be needed most to curb drug-resistant bacterial infections.
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