A team of scientists from Sechenov University together with their colleagues isolated a peptide named emericellipsin A from soil fungi. The substance was proved to possess antitumor and antibacterial properties. The report of the scientists was published in the Molecules journal.

Soil fungi have long been known to be an excellent source of antibacterial substances. Penicillins and cephalosporins produced by micellar (mouldy) fungi are the most well-known ones. These types of fungi are well-studied and have been used for a long time, that gave bacterias resistance to the majority of their antibiotics. Therefore, scientists have to constantly modify the molecules of antibiotics to efficiently destroy harmful bacteria.

"The peptaibol emericellipsin A is shorter than the majority of other known molecules of this class and therefore is more appropriate for drug development. Despite the lack of bactericide effect against gram-negative bacteria, the peptaibol suppresses their ability to form biofilms. The peptaibol's high antifungal activity against Candida and Aspergillus fungi reflects its potential as a new antifungal drug. It may also be active against the fungi resistant to other medicinal drugs. Our results open new perspectives for further studies of emericellipsin A and its analogs,"- told Mr. Yaroslav Andreev, a co-author of the work, the head of the laboratory of molecular and cellular biology of Sechenov University.

The study was carried out together with scientists from Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Gause Institute of New Antibiotics, Tyumen State University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Moscow City Applied Research Center for Combating Tuberculosis.

The press release you may find at the Global Sourse for Science News.