Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
Scientists have recently taken unorthodox approaches to tackling the global challenge of infectious human disease, looking to artificial sweetener to address antibiotic resistance, and chewing gum to stop the oral spread of viruses.
The clinical grade chewing gum was tested on a “mastication simulator,” with promising results.
But it is the surprise of saccharine likely to gain the most attention.
It’s well known as an artificial sweetener widely used in food and drinks, but it can kill multidrug resistant bacteria, according to a new study appearing in EMBO Molecular Medicine.
“We urgently need new drugs to treat resistant infections,” says Professor Ronan McCarthy, who led the research at Brunel University of London’s Antimicrobial Innovations Centre.
“Saccharin could represent a new therapeutic approach with exciting promise.”
Artificial sweetener helps overcome antibiotic resistance
Saccharin was first discovered in the late 1870s and has been used as an artificial sweetener for more than a century. Scientific evidence has since shown that saccharin can influence the gut microbiome, but little was known about the mechanisms through which it impacts bacteria.
Biologists have now found that saccharin halts bacterial growth, disrupts their DNA replication, and stops them from forming biofilms – sticky, protective layers that help them survive antibiotics.
“Saccharin breaks the walls of bacterial pathogens, causing them to distort and eventually burst, killing the bacteria,” says McCarthy.
“Crucially, this damage lets antibiotics slip inside, overwhelming their resistance systems.
“Normally it takes billions of dollars and decades to develop a new antibiotic. But here we have a compound that’s already widely used, and it not only kills drug-resistant bacteria but also makes existing antibiotics more effective.”
The researchers suggest that developing non-classical antimicrobials such as saccharin will likely be critical to our capacity to control and treat multidrug resistant pathogens in the coming decades.
Bean antiviral could chew viruses away
Controlling the transmission of viruses between humans continues to be a major global challenge in an increasingly connected world.
But many viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, herpes simplex virus, and influenza, are spread more efficiently through the mouth than the nose. So, researchers are exploring ways reduce the viral load within the oral cavity to minimise transmission.
A team has now created a clinical grade chewing gum from lablab beans (Lablab purpureus) and tested whether it could neutralise herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and influenza A strains (H1N1 and H3N2) in lab experiments.
The beans are native to sub-Saharan Africa and contain an antiviral protein, Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin or FRIL, which is effective against a range of viral pathogens.
The release of FRIL and total protein from bean gum using chewing simulator ART-5. Credit: Rachel Kulchar
They used an ART-5 mastication simulator, a piece of equipment designed to mimic human chewing and swallowing, to show that enough FRIL is released within the first 5 minutes of chewing to significantly neutralise viruses. A separate experiment showed that the gum can reduce viral load by 95%.
In a separate lab study, researchers created chewing gum made from lablab beans and found it could
As lablab powder has previously been shown to neutralise strains of avian influenza (H5N1 and H7N9), the team will now test whether lablab powder in bird feed can help control bird flu.
“A broad-spectrum antiviral protein present in a natural food product to neutralise not only human flu viruses but also avian flu is a timely innovation to prevent their infection and transmission,” says Henry Daniell, a professor at Pennsylvania University’s School of Dental Medicine and first author of the study in the journal Molecular Therapy.
