A peptide that helps fight antibiotic resistant bacteria
A peptide that helps fight antibiotic resistant bacteria - The peptide spurs immune response—basically leveraging our own intricate systems to fight off an infection. This is in contrast to direct chemical inhibition, which is how all antibiotics work. From the article:
The team found that a peptide, or chain of amino acids, they have dubbed innate defense regulator peptide (IDR-1), can increase innate immunity without triggering harmful inflammation, and offer protection both before and after infection is present.
…
In addition, the peptide did not produce harmful inflammation and toxicity often seen when the immune system is stimulated and, in fact, actually reduced the potentially harmful septic response. Sepsis, a consequence of a ravaging inflammatory response associated with infection, kills as many as 200,000 annually.