Research done in partnership with the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, demonstrates effectiveness of certain mushroom extracts against hospital infections.

The Faculty of Biotechnology (ESB) of the Catholic University Porto just discovered a new way to fight methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium particularly difficult to treat because it is resistant to all antibiotics penicillin and the same group. The research team has demonstrated the effectiveness of some compounds against serious fungal infections that often occur in a hospital environment and may result in septicemia, pneumonia or pericarditis.

The researchers tested different compounds – made from mushrooms from various countries – in pathogenic bacteria isolated from patients in a Portuguese hospital. The results show that the extract solution of such fungi has antimicrobial properties and therefore successfully inhibits the growth of these bacteria.

A path toward new antimicrobial molecules

This discovery of the Faculty of Biotechnology wins special projection taking into account the lack of effective antibiotics against multiple resistances currently detectable in hospitals can lead to, in just 20 years, people may die of a simple infection. The search for new antibiotics thus achieving a new level of urgency.

This study – published in the scientific journal “Journal of Applied Microbiology” – also studied the unprecedented mechanism by which these fungal compounds act. This discovery opens thus way for the development of new molecules for combating multiresistance.