Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
J Pharm Pharmacol. 2018 Oct;70(10):1287-1300. doi: 10.1111/jphp.12976. Epub 2018 Jul 12.
Whether vertebrates/invertebrates living in polluted environments are an additional source of antimicrobials.
Majority of antimicrobials have been discovered from prokaryotes and those which are of eukaryotic origin are derived mainly from fungal and plant sources. With this in mind, it is important to note that pests, such as cockroaches come across pathogenic bacteria routinely, yet thrive in polluted environments. Other animals, such as snakes thrive from feeding on germ-infested rodents. Logically, such species must have developed an approach to protect themselves from these pathogens, yet they have largely been ignored as a potential source of antimicrobials despite their remarkable capability to fight disease-causing organisms.
Animals living in polluted environments are an underutilized source for potential antimicrobials, hence it is believed that several novel bioactive molecule(s) will be identified from these sources to counter increasingly resistant bacterial infections. Further research will be necessary in the development of novel antimicrobial(s) from these unusual sources which will have huge clinical impact worldwide.
生活在污染环境中的脊椎动物/无脊椎动物是否是抗生素的另一个来源。
大多数抗生素已从原核生物中发现，而那些真核生物来源的抗生素主要来自真菌和植物。考虑到这一点，值得注意的是，害虫（如蟑螂）经常接触到病原菌，但它们在污染的环境中茁壮成长。其他动物，如蛇，以吃受感染的啮齿动物为生。从逻辑上讲，这些物种必须有一种方法来保护自己免受这些病原体的侵害，但它们作为抗生素的潜在来源很大程度上被忽视了，尽管它们有显著的抵抗致病生物的能力。
生活在污染环境中的动物是抗生素的一个未充分利用的潜在来源，因此人们相信，将从这些来源中鉴定出几种新型的生物活性分子来对抗日益耐药的细菌感染。需要进一步研究从这些不寻常的来源开发新型抗生素，这将对全球产生巨大的临床影响。
