‘Red algae-derived metal-polysaccharide could serve as anti-microbial applications’
As antibiotic-resistant bacteria become a growing threat and traditional sources of anti-microbial treatments become less effective, scientists around the world have been looking farther afield for promising compounds to treat wounds and infections.
Now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University have connected a metal and a polysaccharide and discovered the new compound worked well against bacteria and common fungus (Candida albicans). This works because of the longer and denser spikes on its surface that poked holes in the membrane and killed off the bacteria and the fungus.
Prof. Shoshana Arad and Prof. Ariel Kushmaro, Prof. Levi Gheber and doctoral student Nofar Yehuda have just published their findings in the journal Marine Drugs under the title “Complexes of Cu–Polysaccharide of a Marine Red Microalga Produce Spikes with Antimicrobial Activity.”
Polysaccharides are a carbohydrate with linked sugar molecules and long chains of carbohydrate molecules composed of several smaller monosaccharides.
These complex bio-macromolecules function as an important source of energy in animal cells and form a structural component of a plant cell.
“By adding a metal (Cu), we were able to create an effective new material,” the researchers said. The new compound is derived from the marine red microalga called Porphyridium sp. Commercialization of these new compounds could come sooner rather than later, they predicted.
“In light of the increased resistance to antibiotic and anti-fungal agents, there is a growing need for the development of new and improved treatments. BGN Technologies, the university’s technology transfer company, holds a patent application ready for licensing in the field, said Galit Mazooz-Perlmuter and Anat Shperberg Avni of BGN.
Polysaccharides are wellknown due to their wide range of biological activities in various aspects such as medicine, cosmetics and foodomics, they wrote in the paper.
“However, it is well understood that their bioactivity is dependent on their structure, which can be enhanced by certain modifications.
“We have thus assumed that the addition of metals to the sulfated polysaccharide of red microalgae with anion [negative ion] exchange capabilities [anion-exchange chromatography is a process that separates substances based on their charges.
“Using an ion-exchange resin containing positively charged groups] will enable synergism between the metal and the polysaccharide and will generate complexes with new functional activities.”
Arad is from the Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering; Kushmaro is a member of the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change and the Goldstein-Goren department, while Gheber is a member of the same department and of the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.