Antibiotics encoded in Neanderthal DNA could help us fight infections
A search of the ancient DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans has revealed coding for extinct bacteria-killing proteins that we could revive to fight infections
Health
1 December 2022
Ancient humans such as Neanderthals had bodily defences against bacteria that might help us treat infections nowadays SEBASTIAN WILLNOW/DDP/AFP via Getty Images
Reviving extinct antibiotic molecules encoded in the DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans could provide a new weapon in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
Last year, César de la Fuente at the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues reported on more than 2000 antibiotic peptides encoded by modern human DNA.
Now, de la Fuente and many of the same researchers have identified six more antibiotic peptides encoded in ancient mitochondrial DNA previously extracted …