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THURSDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDayNews) -- Scientists have replicated the internal machinery that creates a powerful type of antibiotic, potentially setting the stage for the development of new drugs to replace those that no longer work.

The antibiotics, known as lantibiotics, are currently used as preservatives in the food industry. But the breakthrough could lead to their use in humans, University of Illinois researchers say.

"It opens the doors to making vast numbers of new antibiotics," says Norman Hansen, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Maryland.

Meanwhile, German and English researchers claim that they, too, have made a major discovery. In a new report, they say they've unraveled the genetic blueprint of a Hannibal Lechter germ that literally eats other germs.

Antibiotics are a vital weapon in the arsenal of doctors, but many scientists fear their curing powers are diminishing. Diseases from gonorrhea to malaria have developed immunity against antibiotics, leaving pharmaceutical companies scrambling for replacements.

There are two types of natural antibiotics and each is distinguished by how it is created, says study author Wilfred van der Donk, a professor of chemistry at Illinois. One type includes commonly known drugs such as penicillin, while the other is made up of lantibiotics.

One type of lantibiotic, known as nisin, kills germs in food and helps them to stay fresh longer. "If you buy a dairy product or a canned food, there's a pretty good chance that nisin is in there," van der Donk says. "Nisin is extremely useful. It's been used for more than 40 years, and there's been almost no resistance [immunity] that has been detected."

Van der Donk and his colleagues have been trying to find ways to create a relative of nisin, known as lacticin, which is created during cheese production. In the Jan. 30 issue of Science, they report that they succeeded.

"We've essentially taken the machinery out of the organisms, and made more of the machine by using certain techniques of molecular biology," van der Donk says. "Then we were able to make the lantibiotic inside the test tube."

Hansen explains the research this way: "The analogy is that you'd like to understand how a component of an automobile engine works. You have two options. One is to tinker with it while the engine is running and figure out how the part works, another would be to open up the engine and take the part out." The Illinois scientists, he says, have done the latter.

Van der Donk says the findings will help researchers tinker with lantibiotics. "Hopefully we will get compounds that are more active, and useful not just in the food industry but other applications, too."

One kind of lantibiotic, for instance, could stop inflammation in the body, he says. "Time will tell if that really will be a feasible way to go," he says.

There is one challenge, however. If lantibiotics begin to be used in humans, they will almost certainly be banned from use in foods, van der Donk says. Otherwise, the use of the drugs in both food and humans could boost the chance that germs will develop immunity to them.

In another study in the same issue of Science, German and English researchers report they've unraveled the structure of a cannibalistic "predatory bacterium" known as Bdellovibrio. They say their finding could lead to the development of new "living" antibiotics that could track down dangerous germs inside human tissue.

More information

Learn more about antibiotics and resistance to them from the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics or HowStuffWorks.com.

(SOURCES: Wilfred van der Donk, Ph.D., professor, chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Norman Hansen, Ph.D., professor, biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park; Jan. 30, 2004, Science)

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