来自国际研究人员伯尔尼大学and the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that chemical compounds comprising special metals are highly effective in combating harmful fungal infections. These findings could be applied to create ground-breaking drugs that are successful against resistant fungi and bacteria.
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Annually, over one billion people are infected with a fungal infection. Although these infections are harmless to most, more than 1.5 million patients die following infection each year. While fungal strains are increasingly being detected as being resistant to one or more of the available drugs, creating new drugs has come to a virtual halt in the last few years. Currently, only about a dozen clinical trials are happening with new active agents for fungal infection treatment.
与目前正在对人类受试者进行测试的一千多种癌症药物相比，这是一个非常少的人数。
Dr. Angelo Frei, Study Lead Author, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, University of Bern
The results of the study have been reported in the journalJacs au。
通过人群采购来增强抗生素研究
为了激发抗真菌和抗菌药物的创建，澳大利亚昆士兰州大学的科学家建立了开放抗菌药物发现（Co-Add）的社区。该企业的有抱负的目标是通过在全球化学家有机会免费测试对真菌和细菌的任何化合物的机会来发现新的抗菌活性剂。
正如Frei阐明的那样，共同添加的初步重点包围了“有机”分子，其中主要包括碳，氧，氧气和氮的元素，并且不包含任何金属。
但是，弗雷（Frei）试图与伯尔尼大学（University of Bern）的研究小组一起创建新的基于金属的抗生素，他发现，在由共同添加金属测试的30万多种化合物中，有1000多种超过1000种。
对于大多数人来说，当与“人”一词相关联时，金属一词会触发一种不安的感觉。人们认为金属对我们有害的观点普遍存在。但是，这只是部分正确。决定性因素是使用哪种金属以及哪种形式。
Dr. Angelo Frei, Study Lead Author, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, University of Bern
FREI博士负责共同添加数据库中的所有金属化合物。
表现出低毒性
In their new research, the team focussed on the metal compounds which displayed activity against fungal infections. During the study, 21 highly-active metal compounds were tried out against several resistant fungal strains. These carried the metals nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, rhodium, silver, palladium, europium, platinum, iridium, and gold.
许多金属化合物对所有真菌菌株表现出良好的活性，并且对真菌的活性高30,000倍，而不是针对人类细胞。
Dr. Angelo Frei, Study Lead Author, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, University of Bern
The extremely active compounds were then tested in a model organism, the larvae of the wax moth. The scientists noticed that only one of the eleven tested metal compounds displayed indications of toxicity, while the others were well endured by the larvae. In the following step, a few metal compounds were tested in an infection model, and one compound successfully decreased the fungal infection in larvae.
Considerable Potential for Broad Application
Metal compounds have been used in the realm of medicine: Cisplatin, for instance, which holds platinum, is one of the most extensively used anti-cancer drugs. Despite this, there is a lengthy process before new antimicrobial drugs that comprise metals will be permitted.
Our hope is that our work will improve the reputation of metals in medical applications and motivate other research groups to further explore this large but relatively unexplored field.If we exploit the full potential of the periodic table, we may be able to prevent a future where we don’t have any effective antibiotics and active agents to prevent and treat fungal infections.
Dr. Angelo Frei, Study Lead Author, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, University of Bern
The research work received support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the University of Queensland, and the Wellcome Trust, among others.
期刊参考：
弗莱，A。et al。（（2022) Metal Complexes as Antifungals? From a Crowd-Sourced Compound Library to the First In Vivo Experiments.Jacs au。doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.2c00308。
Source:https://www.unibe.ch