Researchers at University of Tübingen in Germany have found that some people’s noses contain a bacterium called Staphylococcus lugdunensis which produces an antibiotic shown to fight off the increasingly hard-to-kill bug Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA.
Some human noses have been found to contain a microbe which can kill an infection-causing bug resistant to other antibiotics.
The discovery is documented in a new study from the University of Tübingen in Germany.
For the research, the team analyzed nasal samples from 37 participants and found that about 10 percent harbored the bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis.
This organism can produce lugdunin, an antibiotic shown to kill the potentially harmful and increasingly sturdy bug Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
The team’s findings add to the likelihood that the human body contains disease-fighting microbes which have traditionally been cultured from soil.
This relatively new source for antibiotics is especially welcome, as patients are becoming less responsive to the medicines that are currently available.
While the study's researchers are seeking a patent on lugdunin, they acknowledge that developing a drug with it is still years away.
