The advances made in the pharma sector are well documented. Whether we are looking at drug development for stopping smoking or the latest cancer fighting formulations, the range of groundbreaking pharmaceutical products continues to increase improving the health and well-being of us all. The routes to and behind the latest drug developments are highly interesting, especially when they come from sources close to home.
A study from Edinburgh University recently highlighted that new discoveries about what helps bacteria thrive in soil could aid the search for new drugs to fight infections. Researchers have found that bugs’ ability to prosper in the earth is more complex than previously thought and the study challenges the existing theory that bacteria can only thrive in their natural environment. According to scientists, bacteria in soil produce potential biological agents for defence that kill fungi and other bugs and these can be developed as antibiotic drugs. How factors in soil interact dictates where bacteria are found and understanding them better could provide researchers with a clearer picture of how soil ecosystems function. This could help scientists increase yields from crop harvest and enable researchers to identify antimicrobial agents that could be developed as new antibiotics.
Researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Ottawa found that bacteria can also thrive in non-native environments. The team collected bacteria and soil samples from a forest in Western Quebec, Canada. They grew bacteria in soils from each of the sites sampled and found that they could prosper in a variety of different environmental conditions. Importantly, the study casts doubt on the belief that bacteria are only able to survive only in their natural environment.
Of course, the outcome and findings will be of extreme importance but in this case the fact that we have gone back to nature in order to tackle ongoing health issues, is a key point. Similar research from the Universities of Sydney and Regensburg in Germany, have also uncovered similar findings in their discovery that the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin may have a sobering effect on alcohol intoxication. The research may lead to the use of oxytocin as a drug for the treatment of alcohol dependence and withdrawal.
Oxytocin occurs in a range of situations – it increases during childbirth to ease labour and is shared between mothers and babies during breastfeeding. According to Dr Michael Bowen, from the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology, while alcohol impairs coordination by inhibiting the activity of the brain regions that provide fine motor control, oxytocin prevents this effect to the point where, when tested on rats, we can’t tell the behaviour of drunk rats from ones whose brains have been infused with the hormone. This is only the beginning of the process as scientists need to uncover a safe drug delivery method to ensure that adequate amounts of oxytocin reach the brain.
The fact that these two examples highlight the application of natural findings to find cures for modern illness is fascinating. Of course, we shouldn’t hang too tightly to the coat tails of the natural world in the belief that it holds all the answers as we need science to help us advance. Innovation in the scientific world is key to the way in which we treat disease and view the way we can make advances in medicine. However, it brings home the need for us to look at every potential source of inspiration when we seek new ways of innovating.