Aug 4, 2006

No plaice like home

Posted in Chemistry, Health at 12:00 am by David Bradley -- Click to comment

The slime that covers the flat-fish plaice contains an antimicrobial agent that kills Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria causing concern in hospitals across the globe as its drug-resistant strains spread.

Chemical engineer Trude Tvete of Nord-Trondelag University College (HiNT) in Norway, has developed a technique for extracting the antimicrobial protein from plaice slime and has tested its biological activity against several types of bacteria. “Previous research has shown that plaice slime kills bacteria, but it didn’t show which substance breaks the bacteria,” says Tvete. “I found that there is a protein in the slime that has the greatest effect.”

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