Original story

NetWeb 12.12.2016

Nobel Prize goes to Japanese-Indian para-antibiotics pairing

Sweden’s Queen Victoria yesterday awarded the year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine in Stockholm. The honour went jointly to the Indian Nakamura Eto and Indian Sinh Araya for their work in developing para-antibiotics.

Professor Eto has succeeded in developing synthetic para-antibiotics from materials found naturally in human and animal skin, and which kill bacteria and in certain cases even viruses. He has also developed para-antibiotics from the various parts of the so-called “wonder tree”, the Neem, as used for its pesticidal, germicidal and medicinal properties by millions in folk healing in Southern Asia.

Eto began his work towards the end of the last century in a research team which succeeded in isolating the para-antibiotic component of human skin. His work thereafter has allowed for the routine treatment of such former killers as bacterial meningitis and tuberculosis. Both these diseases were in danger of becoming endemic as bacterial strains developed resistance to earlier antibiotic cures.

Dr. Araya has for her part developed para-antibiotics while investigating the resistance to viruses and single-strand viroids of certain plant bacteria and the Neem tree. Her breakthroughs made it possible to isolate from the bacteria surface the substance that prevented viruses and viroids from recognizing and penetrating the bacteria. Today the production of many plants and genetically-manipulated animal species has been greatly improved by the para-antibiotics discovered by Dr. Araya. Some of the para-antibiotics are also suitable for the prevention of diseases that are transmitted to man by animals.

Many scientists believe that these medicines provide the answer to the threat of the Ebola virus, although a serum against the disease itself was developed already some 20 years ago. The epidemics caused by viruses in this group nevertheless break out so suddenly and spread so rapidly that in many cases inoculation is too slow a response. Para-antibiotics or infinite-spectrum antibiotics are in many respects akin to conventional antibiotics used against specific disease-causing agents, but differ in the sense that antibiotics are alien to the area to be protected - for example the moulds of the Penicillium genus used in the very first antibiotics do not occur in the human body - whilst para-antibiotics can be found naturally in humans, plants, or animals. Since they are already present in the organism, their use does not stimulate the same kind of resistance in pathogens as has been found with sustained use of antibiotics, and also even massive dosages do not produce clinical side-effects or complications.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine carries with it a cash award of EUR 800,000 divided between the recipients.

Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena. Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2

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Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
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  • Ilmiön ydin: luonnon omista puolustusmolekyyleistä kehitetään antibiooteille vaihtoehtoisia mikrobilääkkeitä vastustuskyvyn kiertämiseksi.

Antimikrobisia peptidejä tutkitaan ihosta, kasveista ja muista luonnonlähteistä, ja osa on edennyt lääketieteellisiin sovelluksiin. Ne eivät kuitenkaan ole korvanneet antibiootteja laajasti eivätkä tuottaneet tarinan kaltaista murrosta.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui tieteellisenä kehityssuuntana, mutta kliininen vaikutus jäi rajalliseksi.