Thursday, September28.;
hursday , September 28, 2000
science
THE BATTALION
exas A&M professor identifies
ays to fight bacterial infections
[IyArun Arjunan L
be Battalion
As the fall semester progresses, many students
kill begin to suffer from the flu, colds and other
fcmmonplace maladies. Many of the illnesses re-
lult from bacterial infections and often
[re passed from one person to another
iirough physical contact. New research
Ihows that viruses can be an effective
3ol in fighting off bacterial infections.
The body’s ability to cope with bac-
erial illnesses depends on
he immune system and
jts production of anti-
odies and white blood
ells. To supplement
he immune system,
ntibacterial sub-
itances, such as antibi-
tics produced by oth-
r organisms are used
|o control or harm-
ul,bacteria. Antibi-
)tics are substances
vhich are produced as
means of competitive
dvantage over other
tacteria.
Dr. David McMur-
y, a microbiologist at
[he Texas A&M
. , Jlealth Science Center, said improper use of an-
icis —oneof Lux stl5 |j5i ot i cs j s t h e primary reason for the prevalence
econlmed If bacterial illness.
iKopy ol ihe Virgin wi “Antibiotics have been misused,” McMurry
Said. “Either physicians do not prescribe a strong
iigm Suicides so c ftei |l noU gj 1 or p at j ents Jq not complete the an-
HS
barely distinguishableli
slits her wrists in thebe
:ver pitch that does
xsessively pore over e-
irs who examined the
lever have answered.
Kbiotic treatment, allowing the bacteria to repro-
once yearned lor a d llce a tougher, more stubborn generation of path
ogenic organisms. The more advanced strains are
vicarious obsession therefore much more difficult to manage, and their
I readers attentions •| S s 0 ci a t e d physiological effects are harder to
losity might not be sated
uick and deep. (Grade:;
Beverly 1
treat.”
Researchers are concentrating on alternative ap
proaches to traditional antibiotics to fight the re
sistant strains of bacteria.
Ryland Young, a biochemistry professor at
A&M, is studying the reproductive behavior
of viral proteins in order to find new
antibiotics which will
fight the modern gen
erations of bacteria.
Young and his re
search team have
described the pro
tein antibiotics of
several viruses al
ready. Young said
he hopes these
proteins can serve
as models for new
antibiotic thera
pies.
“Given the
fact that the an
tibiotics we’re us
ing now are be
coming less
useful everyday
r because of the
amount of resistance,
we will need new antibi
otics,” Young said.
Young said that as an alternative to antibiotics,
viruses may be used to kill bacteria.
“When a virus penetrates a host cell, it repli
cates many times over and subsequently lyses, or
breaks open, to release all the replicas,” he said.
Young said bacteria are susceptible to viruses
because the viral progeny break through the cell
wall and cell membrane. An enzyme, endolysin,
aids in the destruction of the cell wall, which al
lows the viruses to be released and attack to any
other neighboring cells. Young identified a class
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Page 5 A
of proteins, known as holins, that burrow a pas
sageway in the membrane.
“The amazing thing about these holins is that they
sit in the membrane until exactly the right moment,
until enough progeny virions have been assembled,
before letting out the endolysin,’’Young said
Young said the holins proteins act as makeshift
biological timers as soon as the viral mechanism
kicks into gear and changes the host’s genetic in
formation. He said holins release endolysin as soon
as a difference in the gene composition is noticed.
Simple viruses, however, use a simple termina
tion technique and kill the bacterium with a small
protein. The protein acts as an antibiotic, poison
ing the bacterial cell wall, terminating cell division
and effectively killing the cell.
“The good thing about that is if we can figure
oi^t what part of the viral polypeptide is essential
for stopping cell wall growth,” he said,“we can
easily change that just by changing the sequence
of the DNA. It is important that the viral proteins
remain mutable because of bacterial resistance to
antibiotics.”
He said that as the bacteria eventually gain re
sistance to the new viral protein antibiotics, the
DNA sequence that codes for the protein will be
able to produce a newer protein to cope with the
resistance of the next generation of bacteria.
“No one has ever found gene-encoded antibi
otics before,” he said. “It’s potentially a whole new
way of producing antibiotics rather than relying
solely on natural products like penicillin.” Other
scientists are also looking for other approaches to
illnesses other than traditional antibiotics.
Although many researchers are directly inves
tigating new ways to cure illness caused by bacte
rial pathogens, Young said a more broad-based ap
proach is a better idea.
“Most often, discoveries of practical impor
tance come from fundamental research in the ba
sic science," he said.
Evolution education
insufficient, report says
Hi
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a
new chapter of a dispute that pits
science against religion, a nation
al organization of scientists gives
schools in 19 states unsatisfacto
ry grades for teaching evolution.
The report, commissioned by
the Thomas B. Fordham Foun
dation and released Tuesday at
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, grades
49 states and the District of Co
lumbia on the
basis of how
well evolution
is included in
the state sci
ence education
standards.
California,
Connecticut, In
diana, New Jer
sey, North Car
olina and
Rhode Island
received the
highest rank.
Kansas, whose standards were
described as “disgraceful,” got
the lowest grade.
Linda Holloway, former chair
man of the Kansas State Board of
Education, said the report was de
ceptive and “very unfair.”
“Clearly, they have an ax to
grind about evolution,” she said
in a telephone interview.
Kansas last year rekindled the
issue of teaching evolution in
public schools when the state
board of education, lead by Hol
loway, approved science teaching
standards that minimized the im
portance of evolution and omit
ted the big-bang theory of the ori
gin of the universe.
Other states have considered
similar curriculum changes and
some state legislatures have pro
posed laws that would forbid
completely the teaching of evolu
tion in public schools.
Evolution, a theory developed
by Charles Darwin and others,
holds that the Earth is billions of
years old and that all life, includ
ing humans, evolved from sim
ple forms through a process of
natural selection.
Teaching of
evolution has
been opposed
by people who
believe that the
universe, the
Earth and its
creatures were
created abrupt
ly by God.
Some pro
ponents of di
vine creation
have organized
a concept,
called creationism, that they pro
posed be taught along with evo
lution. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme
Court barred states from requir
ing the teaching of creationism.
Now some of the same propo
nents support other concepts,
such as “abrupt appearance” or
“intelligent design,” that are
linked to divine creation.
Lawrence S. Lerner, who
compiled the report for the
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,
said that the conflict “is not real
ly about science, but about reli
gion and politics.” He calls cre
ationism “a pseudoscientific rival
to evolution that the courts have
repeatedly held to be thinly
veiled religion.”
[The conflict] is
not really about
science, but
about religion
and politics/'
— Lawrence S. Lerner
Researcher
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