Tea at Trianon: Scientists Turn to Human Ancestors’ DNA in Search for New Antibiotics

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, August 25, 2023

Scientists Turn to Human Ancestors’ DNA in Search for New Antibiotics

I know. It does sound weird. From Smithsonian:

“We’re motivated by the notion of bringing back molecules from the past to address problems that we have today,” de la Fuente tells Nature News’ Saima Sidik.

To do so, the researchers used a machine learning tool to look at the proteins in modern humans and our closest extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Many organisms make bits of proteins called peptides that can defend against microbes. The tool examined these molecules in our ancestors’ genomes and predicted which ones might be successful antibiotics for living humans. Then, the researchers created the most promising candidates in the lab.

The team used six peptides—four from modern humans, one from Neanderthals and one from Denisovans—to treat mice that had been infected with bacteria, writes Nature News. The treatments stopped one type of bacterium from growing in muscles, but they didn’t kill it, per the publication. With high doses, five of the peptides killed a different kind of bacterium that grew in skin infections.

Jonathan Stokes, a biochemist at McMaster University in Canada who wasn’t involved in the research, tells Vox that this approach to finding new drugs is creative. “I think this technique will augment other antibiotic discovery efforts to help us discover structurally and functionally novel antibacterial therapies that overcome existing resistance mechanisms,” he tells the publication. (Read more.)