Sticky Supermolecules vs Superbugs (Notts TV Broadcast 28th January, 6pm)

The “supermolecule” last line of defence antibiotic vancomycin induces localised clumping of the mucosal mucin in the gut which possibly traps and holds the bugs whilst they are destroyed. This would provide an efficient mechanism by which harmful microbes are killed in the gut.

Notts TV’s Alice Scarff visits the National Centre for Macromolecular Hydrodynamics (NCMH) at the University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington Campus where a team of scientists working with the University’s Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (NMRC) and Scientists at the University of Leeds have discovered that this important “last line of defence” antibiotic against bacterial disease has sticky properties when in contact with mucus lining our intestines.  This stickiness, which seems to derive from the different electrical charges (vancomycin containing positive charges, mucin negative) causes clumps or aggregates with mucin molecules in the mucus to be formed which may hold the vancomycin for a longer period facilitating its destruction of bugs and thereby maximising bacterial destruction.  Associate Professor in Microbial Biophysics Mary Phillips-Jones and Director of the NCMH Professor Stephen Harding lead the team whose finds are published in Nature’s Scientific Reports: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-57776-3.pdf with a summary: www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/SupermolsPressRelease.pdf. A link to the original broadcast on Notts TV: https://nottstv.com/programme/ey-up-notts-tuesday-28th-january/