ANTIBIOTIC resistance is a matter of growing concern for health pro fessionals. More worrying is that not many new antibiotics are in the pipeline. But scientists are working hard to find new classes of antibiotics to deal with drug-resistant bacterial and fungal infections. They are searching antibiotics from untapped ecological niches and harsh environments such as deep lakes and oceans.

Researchers are developing devises that combine an antibiotic with a second drug that has little antibiotic effect, but possesses the power to disarm a bacterial defense molecule.

Developing organism-specific antibiotics could become one of the most important medical challenges of the next couple of decades as they promise to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Scientists are tapping strange places in the hope of finding new antibiotics. As one researcher commented they are looking for new antibiotic at unusual places as usual places (such as soil microbes) have been exhausted. Proteins in alligator blood are one such potential source of new antibiotics.

Alligator blood proteins are both antibacterial and antifungal.

They are being conceived as creams to prevent uncontrolled infection in foot ulcers of patients with diabetes and to keep at bay infection from the skin of severe burn patients. It has even shown promise against superbugs, and may even fight HIV. The immune system of alligators works differently than humans. It is due to their evolutionary adaptation. Alligators can fight the enemy even without prior knowledge of the enemy. They need quick healing as they are often injured during fierce territorial battles. The researchers expect the drug to come to the market in 10 years. The researchers, however, caution us to keep away from preparing home-remedies until then as raw, unprocessed blood could make one sick or even kill if injected.

Frog skin is another source of new antibiotics. The skin of frogs is known to possess chemicals to kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. Researchers have identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of frogs collected from all over the world. The problem is with the toxicity of antibiotics derived from frog skin to human cells.

Moreover, certain components of our blood stream easily destroy them. Researchers are thus making efforts so as to make them less toxic to human cells, and to make the product less prone to attacks by some destructive enzymes in the blood. More importantly, researchers are playing with their molecular structure to make them more lethal infection fighters. Rese archers envision developing the products as creams or ointments for treating skin infections or as injectable drugs for treating drug resistant infections throughout the body. Cockroaches carry in their little head the promise of a new antibiotic. It is logical for cockroaches to produce antibiotics, say researchers, as they mostly live in the most unhygienic places. They would not survive if they did not have inbuilt mechanism to protect them in the dirty environment they live.

The central nervous systems of some cockroaches have shown to produce natural antibiotics. It can even kill `methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In the cockroach's brain researchers found nine types of antibacterial molecules; each molecule is specialised to kill a different type of bacteria.

Though the research is in the initial stages and there is a long way to go, researchers see a ray of hope in their efforts: insect antibiotics to human cells showed no toxic effects in lab experiments.

The writer is a biotech nologist and ED, Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur