Food by-product can kill MRSA bug

Irish bioinformatics company Nuritas has announced that it has discovered the peptide can eradicate the notorious bacterium Meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureusis​ (MRSA).

Nuritas claims the substance can provide a natural, healthy innovation in the fight against antibiotic-resistant infections in both humans and animals.

The firm’s biotechnology could quickly and cost-effectively harvest ingredients which could then be developed and supplied to humans and animal producers for uses such as developing anti-bacterial cleaning agents.

Nuritas had found a way of rapidly and effectively extracting and activating safe and healthy anti-microbial molecules in food that were often overlooked, it said.

World-first​

This was a world-first, because most molecules were usually derived from non-sustainable sources that had unknown side effects on human health and cost millions of pounds and took years to develop.

“Our aim is to make ingredients that are more accessible, natural and meeting serious societal health needs,”​ Nuritas ceo Dr Nora Khaldi stated.

Dr Marta Martins, biotechnology research fellow at University College Dublin, said: “The increase of antibiotic resistance in bacteria of clinical relevance is a major issue for public health and there is the immediate need for alternative solutions.”​

The inappropriate use of antibiotics in human treatments and animal production was contributing to antibiotic resistance, allowing bacterium such as Staphylococcus aureus​ to continue to evolve, Nuritas said.

Severe side effects​

Developing treatments to keep up with the evolution of germs were costly and time-consuming and severe side effects were also associated with some of the second or last-line antibiotic treatments, it added.

Its ingredients were cost-effectively and quickly mined from food sources, eliminating the possible severe side effects associated with current therapies and uses, it claimed.

Nuritas’s discovery could provide innovative treatment of costly and dangerous MRSA causing-infections by providing affordable, healthy, sustainable anti-microbials, it said. ​

Nuritas uses artificial intelligence to mine data from food, allowing the discovery of life-changing ingredients that could be added to personal care products, supplements, food or biocides.