[ti:Designing an Alternative to Antibiotics ] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Health Report] [00:00.00]The VOA Special English Health Report. [00:07.81]In nineteen twenty-eight a British scientist [00:11.41]made a "chance observation." He noticed [00:15.21]that some mold had grown in bacteria [00:18.51]in a culture plate in his laboratory. [00:22.24]Molds can do that. But this mold [00:25.16]that had somehow gotten into the plate [00:29.21]had the ability to kill the bacteria around it. [00:32.72]The scientist, Alexander Fleming, [00:36.92]found that the mold was a member of a common group [00:42.64]known as Penicillium. Fleming and two other scientists -- [00:47.37]Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey -- [00:52.10]went on to win the Nobel Prize in nineteen forty-five. [00:56.45]They were honored "for the discovery of penicillin [01:01.31]and its curative effect in various infectious diseases." [01:06.47]Other powerful antibiotics have been discovered [01:10.95]since penicillin. But many antibiotics have become [01:15.80]less and less effective as the germs they are designed [01:18.29]to kill develop resistance. [01:23.76]So scientists are searching for new ways to treat infections. [01:28.89]Now, researchers in Australia say [01:31.88]they have made a important discovery. [01:36.04]Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne [01:40.27]believe an antibacterial viral protein [01:43.53]called PlyC could be used [01:46.64]as an alternative to antibiotics. [01:51.87]This protein was first identified as a possible treatment [01:54.97]for infections in nineteen twenty-five. [02:00.51]But the research ended following the discovery of antibiotics. [02:04.74]Now, scientists have spent six years studying [02:08.54]the structure of the protein. They have found [02:12.02]how it kills the bacteria that cause [02:18.05]sore throats, pneumonia and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. [02:22.78]Australian researchers worked with scientists [02:25.52]at the Rockefeller University in New York [02:28.38]and the University of Maryland. [02:31.97]Their findings appear in the Proceedings of [02:34.89]the National Academy of Sciences. [02:38.93]Dr. Sheena McGowan from Monash University [02:40.92]describes the protein [02:44.90]as a powerful bacterial killing machine. [02:48.63]She says it looks like a flying saucer [02:51.24]carrying a pair of warheads. [02:54.67]It connects to the surface of the bacterium [02:59.20]and then cuts though the outside to destroy it. [03:03.62]Sheena McGowan says it could be highly valuable [03:06.36]when conditions like pneumonia [03:09.72]do not respond to traditional treatments. [03:11.44]SHEENA MCGOWAN: "There's antibiotics at the moment [03:13.12]for those particular types of diseases. [03:15.69]We sort of see that there's a bit of resistance [03:17.86]being built up in the bacterial community almost, [03:20.35]and some of our antibiotics aren't quite as effective [03:22.76]as they used to be. So this kind of ground route, [03:25.31]basic research needs to be done quite early [03:26.93]so that we have some time to develop them [03:29.24]as safe human therapeutic over the timeframe [03:30.61]when the antibiotics can keep working." [03:32.54]The researchers have been studying [03:37.33]PlyC's atomic structure to try to develop a drug. [03:40.57]They say they have had success [03:44.55]in treating streptococcal infections in mice. [03:47.97]But an effective human treatment [03:51.08]in the form of a pill or nasal spray [03:53.82]may be at least ten years away. [03:59.73]And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. [04:00.79]I'm Steve Ember.