Quick Dips

Antibiotic Breakthrough

Two Massey University scientists are about to have 15 years of research rewarded with the development of a revolutionary antibiotic made from the human lactoferrin molecule, a protein found in milk, tears and saliva. Unlike present antibiotics, the lactoferrin molecule is active against a wide range of bacteria, including those which are resistant to penicillin. In addition, because the human body produces lactoferrins, it is not likely to develop a resistance to this natural antibiotic.

Professor Ted Baker and Dr John Tweedie have just won a three-year contract worth US$300,000 from US company Agennix Inc, to continue their structural analysis of the human lactoferrin molecule. Agennix aims to market the new molecule as an all-purpose antibacterial agent.

By using crystallography and molecular biology, Baker and Tweedy have determined the exact three-dimensional structure of lactoferrin and have cloned and expressed the lactoferrin gene. Its potential use as a wide-spectrum natural anti-bacterial agent is very important, as bacteria develop resistance to antibacterial compounds such as penicillin.

Lactoferrin is being produced by Agennix using genetic engineering methods. The gene is put into a fungal organism, Aspergillus, allowing the protein to be produced in large quantities. The research contract will involve verifying that the protein produced in the Aspergillus fungal cells has exactly the same 3D structure and function as protein from human milk, and using the structural knowledge to design and produce new, modified lactoferrins.

Agennix will initially use the antibiotics in such non-consumable products as eye washes, contact lens solutions and mouthwashes.

"It may also be useful in treating people who are prone to bacterial infection, for example cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy, and AIDS patients, or for treating diseases of iron overload, as lactoferrin binds iron," Baker says.

The research has been a long term project for both scientists and their teams of research students, who have worked on it for 15 years.

"It started off as purely academic research, but we always knew lactoferrin had antibacterial properties, and it is only now that the technology exists to exploit that," Baker says.