Need to avoid biomembranes

2002/05/30 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biokimika
• Biologia

Bacteria are capable of building barriers. For this purpose many grains are joined forming membranes. These biomembranes cannot be destroyed with antibiotics because the bacteria are resistant. Consequently, these groups of bacteria can cause diseases such as cystic fibrosis, fatal disease, due to lung contamination.

Biochemists from the University of Iowa of the United States have found that the body has a system to prevent the formation of these membranes. It protects a protein from bacteria: laktoferrin. Lacoferrin has an anti-infectious function for a long time. Now scientists have understood that it hinders the synthesis of biomembranes. This protein extracts traces of iron to the bacteria until it leaves it without food. According to biochemicals, hence the abundance of lacoferrin in body secretions.

Cystic fibrosis develops when the cells that synthesize lacoferrin are damaged. The effect of this protein can serve to prepare other anti-biomembrane strategies. According to scientists, the reduction of food for the bacteria is, in short, the key to the work of the protein.