Sea sponges may hold key to fighting killer infections
In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology in April, researchers identified several chemical compounds produced by microbes that live in deep-sea sponges. These secretions show promise in defeating antibiotic-resistant infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and colostridium difficile (C.diff), which menace patients in hospitals and long-term nursing facilities, killing millions of people every year.
“There is this desperate need to find new antibiotics,” said Peter McCarthy, a marine microbiology professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, part of the FAU campus in Fort Pierce. “We have picked up many sponges that have never been seen before. So that led us to believe they contained microbes that had never been seen before.”...