Compound Present in Sweat Could be Developed into a Powerful Antibiotic

While sweat is considered to be an unpleasant byproduct of our body, a new study has found that a compound present in the sweat could be one of the best antibiotics around which the researchers hope can be used in fighting deadly infections such as tuberculosis.

The study was conducted by researchers at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany, the University of Strasbourg in France and the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who analyzed a chemical, known as dermcidin, present in the human sweat. The study has been published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that dermcidin is secreted by sweat glands and is often at hand to quickly kill off any potential bugs whenever we suffer from a small scratch or cut or a mosquito bite. The chemical contains antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which is more effective in providing long term protection against the invading microbes which are not able to quickly develop resistance to it.

"Antibiotics are not only available on prescription. Our own bodies produce efficient substances to fend off bacteria, fungi and viruses. Now that we know in detail how these natural antibiotics work, we can use this to help develop infection-fighting drugs that are more effective than conventional antibiotics", lead researcher Ulrich Zachariae said.

Source: Medindia