Vibro vulnificus is a very dangerous bacterium that is known for causing fatal infections in humans. This infection is known as Necrotizing faciitis (NF) or flesh-eating disease. V.
vulnificus eats tissue and causes the tissue area to die eventually causing the host to die. This bacterium can be found in contaminated water as well as in seafood obtained from these waters. Researchers have been working on finding a cure or medications that can work against this bacterium. As of now, antibiotics are being used to treat the infection. However, according to research conducted by Lee et al. (2017), the therapeutic effects of the antibiotics are limited by multidrug resistance. Therefore, he focused on studying an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) called HPA3P^His, which was loaded onto a gold nanopartcile-DNA aptamer (AuNP-Apt). In the study, they found that this conjugate (AuNP-Apt-HPA3P^His) was an effective alternative against V.
vulnificus infection
in vivo in mice.
Figure 1. Effects of AuNP-Apt^His-HPA3P^His on V. vulnificus infected-host cells. Section A represents the number of viable V. vulnificus cells treated and how they decreased over time. On the other hand, section B shows the viable cells and their concentration of peptide.
Lee et al. (2017) were able to demonstrate that the antimicrobial agent used against V. vulnificus infection is a great alternative to the commonly used antibiotics. The data in this research demonstrates how important it is to realize the effects we are having in our environment and how it ends up affecting us.
Original Article:
Lee B, Park J, Ryu M, Kim S, Joo M, Yeom J, Kim S, Park Y, Lee K, and Bae J (2017). Antimicrobial peptide-loaded gold nanopartcile-DNA aptamer conjugates as highly effective antibacterial therapeutics against Vibrio vulnificus. Scientific Reports 7: 13572
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