Arctic Ocean Microbes Offer Potential New Antibiotics Against Viruses‌ ‌

Research vessel Kronprins Haakon in the Arctic Ocean. The research shows how advanced screening assays can identify anti-virulence and antibacterial metabolites from actinobacteria extracts. YANNIK SCHNEIDER VIA SWNS.

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A potential new source for drugs to fight deadly viruses has been discovered – at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

The “promising” antibiotic candidates were found in microbes deep in the sea, say scientists.

Antibiotics are a key component of modern medicine as without them, anyone with open wounds or needing to undergo surgery would be at constant risk of dangerous infections.

But researchers say the world is facing a global antibiotics “crisis” as more and more resistant strains of bacteria are evolving, while the rate of discovery of fundamentally new antibiotics has been much slower.

But they explained that there is reason for hope as 70% of all currently licensed antibiotics have been derived from actinobacteria in the soil, and most environments on Earth have not yet been searched for them.

Scientists say that focusing the search on actinobacteria in other habitats is a “promising” strategy – especially if it were to yield new molecules that neither kill bacteria outright nor stop them from growing, but only reduce their “virulence” or capacity for causing disease.

They explained that is because it is hard for targeted pathogenic strains to evolve resistance under such conditions, while such anti-virulence compounds are also less likely to cause unwanted side effects.

Study corresponding author Professor Päivi Tammela, of the University of Helsinki in Finland, said: “We show how advanced screening assays can identify anti-virulence and antibacterial metabolites from actinobacteria extracts.