Scientists unveil breakthrough drug with the potential to save lives: 'There's been this war raging for 2 billion years'

Researchers in China have developed an antifungal drug that experts hope can help counter the growing threat of infectious diseases worldwide.

The drug was developed by creating a bacterial compound called mandimycin that has proved effective in targeting fungal infections in mice. Bacteria are a natural choice of antifungal measure, as Martin Burke, a chemist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Science News. Bacteria and fungi have been locked in competition for resources since time immemorial. 

"There's been this war raging for 2 billion years," Burke said. Bacteria and fungi have been "building weapons to try to compete with each other for nutrients in the environment."

The study combed through 316,123 bacterial genomes to find a compound that effectively targets fungi. The researchers attached two sugar molecules to the compound's tail that helped it effectively target phospholipids, which are essentially the fungi's building blocks. There are other antifungal compounds, such as amphotericin B, but they come with side effects. As the Mayo Clinic notes, amphotericin B can harm the kidneys. 

The development comes at a particularly crucial time as rising global temperatures caused by human activity heighten the risk of fungal and other infections worldwide. This is already happening in some parts of the United States. For example, valley fever is caused by breathing in coccidioides organisms, per the Mayo Clinic, which are found in the soil and dust of the Southwest region. However, they have also been found in Washington state. 

The human body is much too warm for most fungal infections to survive, but a warmer climate may mean that fungi adapt to heat and present new risks of infection. Moreover, more frequent and intense extreme weather events will promote the growth and spread of fungal spores into new locales. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that warmer conditions could also render existing antifungal measures less effective, and a study in The Lancet noted that over 2 million deaths per year worldwide are directly attributable to fungal infections.

Some experts have been baffled by the success of mandimycin in trials in killing fungal infections without affecting bacterial or human cells. The researchers acknowledge that further study will be needed before the compound can be tested on people, but it is a promising new lead. 

"It's one of those exciting papers that opens a lot of doors, [and] pretty much behind every one is another question," Burke told Science News.

Would you swallow a robot pill to improve your health? Absolutely 💯 Maybe once it's more common 🤔 Only if I were sick 🤒 Only as a last resort ☠️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.