Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPIX)

[DaubersUP]

Existing antibacterials do two things to fight bacterial infections. First, they identify some molecule on the microorganism’s surface and bind to it. Once attached, they transport a drug into the bacterium to interfere with some critical part of its biological processes.

Bacteria, in turn, develop resistances by evolving the molecules being targeted by antibiotics so that the drugs can’t recognize or bind to their targets. They can also evolve their “efflux pumps” to expel the antibiotic drugs.

Welcome Defensins!

Found throughout the animal kingdom, including in insects, these natural biological antibiotics are called “defensins.” Structurally, defensins are peptides, short amino acid chains with an electrostatic charge. (Larger amino acid chains, by the way, are called proteins.)

Defensins attach themselves electrostatically to bacteria and other microorganisms, including fungi and some viruses. For targeted microbes, this attachment is the hug of death. Defensins lock onto bacteria and other microorganisms and effectively perforate their outer membranes. The resultant “leaks” disrupt the microorganisms’ vital functions.

This is one of the reason why bacteria don’t develop resistance to defensins. Whereas conventional antibiotics must penetrate bacterial cell walls, defensins act directly on the surface membrane. To escape the defensins, bacteria would have to evolve entirely new outer membrane characteristics, which is nearly inconceivable for these simple organisms.

This is from Patrick Cox newsletter back in January.