Yeasts to measure antibiotic toxicity

2003/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

Antibiotics cause adverse reactions to some people. To know the genera to which these reactions are associated and measure the reaction of new antibiotics, they use levamies at the British University of Nottingham.

Researchers analyze the influence of antibiotics on the yeast genome Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although the genome of this yeast is much shorter than that of man, it contains 40% of the genes involved in human diseases.

In fact, antibiotics act against bacteria, but if they sometimes damage human cells, researchers thought they could also act against yeast. Thus, gentamicin antibiotic used to treat skin, eye and hearing infections and some meningitis was tested in yeast. In fact, this antibiotic affects 5-10% of patients in kidneys and inner ear.

When tested in Legamia, they saw that it influenced the 17 genes, causing yeast growth to slow or slow down. In this way, they have been able to know how gentamicin affects. In addition, they have shown that similar tests can be done with other antibiotics.