Snow algae with antibiotic agents

Snow algae substances are the new hope for natural antibiotics

02/16/2014

In nature, there are many antibiotic plants that have been used against bacterial infectious diseases ever since. Researchers from Germany have found hopeful substances in snow algae. According to the scientists, they can be used to design a completely new antibiotic. However, the algae grow in extremely cold conditions. The snow algae grow in polar and alpine areas. They color glaciers and snow regions in red.

Snow algae turn the snow red
For a long time that was „red snow“ a secret. Only a few years ago it became apparent in more intensive research that microscopic algae are responsible for the color. When they start to bloom, the snow turns green and then turns red. The researchers called the rediscovery „snow algae“. Closer examination revealed further interesting aspects.

Algae could be a natural antibiotic
Snow algae are currently the great hope of medical scientists. The researchers have a reasonable suspicion that antibiotic medicine can be produced from the algae of cold regions. Because forms of life that thrive in very extreme weather conditions often contain valuable substances for medicine. In the case of algae, it is above all the ice-structuring proteins (ISP) that are of great interest. The physicians suspect a context between the protein ISP and so-called fungal antibodies. So it could be that the experts have found herbal substances that work the same as antibiotics.

The research director is Thomas Leya from the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT. He is a biologist and examines the algae. "They contain astaxanthin, which is a pigment that makes the cold-loving algae in an enduring stage of their complex life cycle and turns them red, and they exist in an environment of extreme living conditions and therefore synthesize exceptional metabolites," the expert told the newspaper „world“.

Extreme temperatures lead to survival strategies
Snow algae can survive extreme cold temperatures. But that also means that breeding will be more difficult. „They thrive best at two degrees Celsius“, is it [called. At 10 degrees, the algae die. Because the glaciers continue to erode due to the general climate change, it could happen that snow algae will soon disappear. Research must therefore quickly find ways to grow the algae, so as not to jeopardize the scientific work. (Sb)