Traditional Chinese Cuisine “Laba Garlic” : Antibiotic Substitutes.

Recently, the natural medicinal chemistry team of Professor Chen Haixia of Tianjin University discovered three new active peptides for the first time from the traditional Chinese cuisine “Laba Garlic”. These active peptides have significant antibacterial properties and are expected to become antibiotic substitutes. The relevant results have been published as the cover article of the international scientific journal "Food & Function".

The discovery and application of antibiotics is a revolution in the history of human medicine. However, with the widespread use of the clinic, the status quo of abuse and misuse of antibiotics exists in many countries. Drug abuse has rapidly adapted bacteria to the antibiotic environment, and various "super bacteria" have been born, which seriously endanger people's health. Finding safe and effective antibiotic alternatives is one of the effective ways to address the global medical problem of “bacterial resistance”.

Active peptides are called "chemical messengers" in animals and plants, regulating life processes such as growth, development, reproduction, metabolism and behavior. Professor Chen Haixia's team has long focused on the health and therapeutic effects of various functional ingredients in food on the human body. This time, they discovered and identified three new active peptides in the traditional Chinese food “Laba Garlic”, and conducted in-depth research on their antibacterial activity and mechanism. Studies have shown that when these active peptides act on bacteria, they can form pores on the surface of bacterial cells by the action mechanism of "barrel-like pore model" and "carpet model", destroying bacterial cell membranes, causing leakage of cell contents, thereby achieving bacteriostatic action. purpose.

"The broad biological activity of the novel active peptides shows its good medical application prospects." Dr. Gao Xudong from the team of Professor Chen Haixia introduced that the novel active peptides not only have good antibacterial activity, but also have low toxicity and are not easy to produce resistant bacteria. The characteristics are expected to be safe and effective antibiotic substitutes suitable for human body. The relevant research results provide a theoretical basis for further development and application of natural antimicrobial peptide drugs. At present, the research is supported by a number of funds such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Tianjin Science and Technology Fund.
(Article source: Science and Technology Daily Chen Hao Jiao Defang Published: 2019-09-19)

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