A highly toxic mine Hell may hold the answer to the growing threat of antibiotic - resistant bacterium . Researchers have foundthat when acquire together , two metal money of fungus kingdom found in the tailing pool of a Montana mine produce a new chemical compound that kill multiple strains of methicillin - resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA ) .
Published in theJournal of Natural Products , the unexpected discovery was made after researchers from the University of Montana set out isolate the compounds produced by micro-organism living in the Berkeley Pit Lake , a former open pit copper color mine that is now heavily contaminated . While individually the fungi produced compound that were of some interest to medical specialty , what happened when the two specie were grow in conjunction with each other was surprising .
For the last few 10 , investigator Andrea Stierle and Donald Stierle have been look at what the fungi growing in the Berkeley Pit Lake have been produce . The lake , which is the termination of an one-time copper mine that closed in 1983 , has become incredibly acidic as the water system washed over reveal oxidate rock . It now has a pH level of 2.5 . Not only that , but leaden metals from the excavation – such as arsenic and atomic number 48 – have also percolate into the lake .
This draw the water toxic to most living . Last year , for example , several thousand snow geese diedafter put down on the lake when they were trying to avoid a snow violent storm . Extremophiles , however , have managed to set up shop in the water , including unlike species of kingdom Fungi .
Previous analysis has found that these microorganisms create compounds that have the potential for medical use , for example being able to slow down inflaming and even cell end . But it waswhen the researchersput together two separate metal money ofPenicilliumfungi that things got interesting . After pull out the protein produced , they found one that count like known antibiotic drug , spurring them to test it on bacteria .
They found that the mote successfully killed four strains of MRSA . Often carry on the skin and in the olfactory organ and pharynx , MRSA has been a finicky problem in hospital , as it is resistant to the most widely used antibiotic drug and is opportunistic to those already ill .
The enquiry goes to show that possible new antibiotics can be find in some of the most unexpected plaza . More inquiry will be necessary to further test the compound and its medical possibilities .
