Antibióticos Crípticos o Durmientes Se enfrentan Exitosamente contra las Bacterias Multirresistentes: Los Hongos del Suelo
Ya hemos hablado en numerosas ocasiones de como la humanidad se ha beneficiado enormemente de las sustancias que producen los microorganismos del suelo. De hecho los antibióticos sintetizados por los hongos que habitan en el medio edáfico han salvado cientos de millones de vidas. Sin embargo, la sociedad actual viene maltratando los recursos edáficos hasta límites insostenibles. Una de las consecuencias de tal ¡insensato comportamiento! ha sido que los propios microorganismos del suelo adquirieran multirresistencia hacia los mentados biocidas, convirtiéndose en un gravísimo problema para la salud pública que nos afecta a todos los ciudadanos.
Hoy os mostramos una muy buena noticia, ya que volviendo la cara de nuevo hacia los hongos, mediante nuevas tecnologías, estos han logrado depararnos una esperanzadora y grata sorpresa. Las bacterias Multirresistentes se han convertido en un azote para la humanidad. Sin embargo, investigaciones recientes han constatado la presencia de los denominados antibióticos y antimocrobianos crípticos, que pueden ayudar a enfrentarnos de nuevo contra esta desgracia global producida por la estupidez de una sociedad a la que denominamos tecnológica y del conocimiento ¿¿??. De todo ello os hemos ido informando a lo, largo de más de una década en multitud de post, actualmente almacenados en nuestras categorías “Biología y Ecología del Suelo” y “Los Suelos y la salud”.
Los hongos del suelo producen también en «momentos concretos» ciertos metabolitos que dejan de ser sintetizados cuando ya no les son necesarios, y a los que se denominan compuestos crípticos. Por esta razón, son difícilmente detectables, al contrario que otras sustancias entre las cuales deberían encontrarse los antibióticos clásicos, como ya sugiere su denominación. ¿Cuántos son, cuales pueden acarrear beneficios para curar las enfermedades infecciosas humanas?. Todo ello aun permanece por ser investigado. Ahora bien, se sospecha que una bioprospección rigurosa y sistemática de lugar a que se descubran bastantes sustancias de tal guisa, ya fueran con propiedades antibióticas o antimicrobianas. La noticia que os ofrecemos hoy abajo nos informa que algunas especies del género Doratomyces, que habitan en el medio edáfico o sobre los restos vegetales que lo cubren, y a los cuales ayudan a descomponer, generan unas sustancias con poder antibiótico como para luchar con éxito contra las ya aludidas bacterias Multirresistentes. Un rayo de luz entre las tinieblas que se cernían sobre la salud de los ciudadanos. La especie de hongo en cuestión resulta ser Doratomyces microsporus. Por las razones aludidas, otros expertos hablan de “antibióticos y antimicrobianos durmientes”, cuando realmente el verdadero “durmiente” resulta ser nuestro cerebro colectivo. Pues bien, una de las sustancias que acaba de salir a luz, apelando al uso de nuevos procedimientos tecnológicos, tras su inmemorial cripticidad en el suelo, resulta efectiva con vistas a combatir, por ejemplo, las numerosas enfermedades que inducen las cepas multirresistentes de la bacteria que denominamos Staphylococcus aureus.
Del mismo modo, algunas de estas sustancias refuerzan la actividad de otros antibióticos ya conocidos que comenzaban a ser poco eficaces en la lucha contra las susodichas bacterias multirresistentes, de tal modo que, por ejemplo, pequeñas dosis de ampicilina junto al nuevo compuesto “críptico” acabaron con los microrganismos patógenos testados.
Esperamos y deseamos que tales investigaciones progresen por el bien de la humanidad. El ciudadano debería saber que, a pesar de nuestros denodados esfuerzos para fomentar la degradación del suelo con todos los medios de que disponemos a nuestro alcance, este rastrero recurso natural casi siempre sale en nuestro auxilio cuando le necesitamos.
Juan José Ibáñez
Compound from rare fungus reduces resistance to antibiotics
Scientists were able to coax the fungus into producing several previously dormant, or «cryptic,» antibiotic and antimicrobial compounds.
By Brooks Hays | July 15, 2016 at 3:28 PM
VIENNA, July 15 (UPI) — Fungi have yielded many compounds with medicinal qualities. A newly discovered compound, derived from a rare fungus, promises to aid the fight against antibiotic resistance.
The compound was discovered by coaxing deactivated genes in the fungus Doratomyces microsporus back to life. Many of the therapeutic compounds discovered in fungi are constantly produced. A fungus may only periodically produce a compound. Production may cease for long periods of time. «Fungi can even deactivate the respective parts of their genome if a metabolite is not needed anymore. These compounds can’t be detected any longer and are classified as cryptic compounds,» Christoph Zutz, a food scientist at the Vetmeduni Vienna, said in a news release.
For this reason, scientists hypothesize that many potentially valuable compounds may lie dormant, the code for their synthesis hiding among inactive genes. By introducing valproic acid to Doratomyces microsporus, scientists were able to trigger the production of several previously dormant, or «cryptic,» antibiotic and antimicrobial compounds. One compound, called cyclo-(L-proline-L-methionine), or cPM, proved effective at fighting both normal strains of Staphylococcus aureus pathogens and strains that have built up resistance to antibiotics. The compound was previously discovered in a marine sponge in the frigid coastal waters of Antarctica.
When cPM was used together with ampicillin to battle two strains of ampicillin-resistant bacteria, the pathogens were killed. «The resistance was demonstrably reduced, even at a lower dose of ampicillin than usually,» said lead researcher Kathrin Rychli.
The researchers, who published their latest findings in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, say they will continue to search for other cryptic and novel antibiotic compounds using similar methods.
«Valproic acid is not the only way to gain active compounds from fungi or other microorganisms,» explained Joseph Strauss, a researcher from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. «You can also make bacteria and fungi grow together. This also leads to a natural stimulus.»
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Doratomyces (Dor-ah-toe-mice’-ees) is a genus of the fungi imperfecti, closely related to Scopulariopsis. Their conidiophores gather together to form a stalk-like inflorescence known as a synnema or coremia; Scopulariopsis being distinguished in their lack of such a structure. Usually associated with decay, they are usually found in association with dead wood, rotting plants, and in soil or dung. Economically, they can cause rot in potatoes, oats and corn.alproic Acid Induces Antimicrobial Compound Production in Doratomyces microspores
Christoph Zutz et al.
Abstract Go to:
One of the biggest challenges in public health is the rising number of antibiotic resistant pathogens and the lack of novel antibiotics. In recent years there is a rising focus on fungi as sources of antimicrobial compounds due to their ability to produce a large variety of bioactive compounds and the observation that virtually every fungus may still contain yet unknown so called “cryptic,” often silenced, compounds. These putative metabolites could include novel bioactive compounds. Considerable effort is spent on methods to induce production of these “cryptic” metabolites. One approach is the use of small molecule effectors, potentially influencing chromatin landscape in fungi. We observed that the supernatant of the fungus Doratomyces (D.) microsporus treated with valproic acid (VPA) displayed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus (S.) aureus and two methicillin resistant clinical S. aureus isolates. VPA treatment resulted in enhanced production of seven antimicrobial compounds: cyclo-(l-proline-l-methionine) (cPM), p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, cyclo-(phenylalanine-proline) (cFP), indole-3-carboxylic acid, phenylacetic acid (PAA) and indole-3-acetic acid. The production of the antimicrobial compound phenyllactic acid was exclusively detectable after VPA treatment. Furthermore three compounds, cPM, cFP, and PAA, were able to boost the antimicrobial activity of other antimicrobial compounds. cPM, for the first time isolated from fungi, and to a lesser extent PAA, are even able to decrease the minimal inhibitory concentration of ampicillin in MRSA strains. In conclusion we could show in this study that VPA treatment is a potent tool for induction of “cryptic” antimicrobial compound production in fungi, and that the induced compounds are not exclusively linked to the secondary metabolism. Furthermore this is the first discovery of the rare diketopiperazine cPM in fungi. Additionally we could demonstrate that cPM and PAA boost antibiotic activity against antibiotic resistant strains, suggesting a possible application in combinatorial antibiotic treatment against resistant pathogens.
Keywords: fungi, Doratomyces, valproic acid, diketopiperazine, antimicrobial compounds
is a worldwide distributed fungus mainly isolated from feces but also from rotting plant material and soil, which has been associated with decay (Domsch et al., 2007). It is known to produce an extracellular keratinase, which is closely related to proteinase K (Vignardet et al., 1999; Gradisar et al., 2000). Furthermore it has been shown that this fungus has the ability to degrade the antifungal alkaloid sampangine (Orabi et al., 1999). Besides these studies little is known about the primary and secondary metabolite profile of this fungus