Antibacterial activities of natural minerals and alternative treatment for infect

描述(由申请人提供)：我们正确应对全球传染病发病率的能力在于检测、预防和有效治疗这些感染的能力。随着抗生素的过度使用和误用的增加，感染性细菌对抗生素的抗药性越来越强。因此，由于近几十年来几乎没有新的抗菌化合物问世，鉴定和分析抑菌剂是一项值得努力的工作。自有记录以来，使用天然纳米矿物治疗皮肤感染已经很明显，特定的粘土矿物可能被证明在治疗细菌性疾病方面很有价值，包括没有有效抗生素的感染，如布鲁里溃疡和多重耐药感染。建议进行这项研究的理由是基于若干观察和认识：(A)特定的粘土矿物已被用于治疗患有布鲁里溃疡的儿童，这是一种由溃疡分枝杆菌引起的坏死性皮肤感染；(B)用于治疗布鲁里溃疡的矿物和另外两种矿物的敏感性测试显示，对几种不同的细菌病原体具有杀菌或抑菌活性，包括耐药菌株；以及(C)使用抗菌矿物将为局部感染提供一种廉价的替代治疗方法。考虑到缺乏治疗坏死性溃疡分枝杆菌感染和其他危及生命的皮肤感染的药物，如MRSA，我们的目标是通过研究粘土矿物的广谱抗菌特性和确定这些生物活性矿物的作用机制，验证特定矿物可以治愈细菌感染的观察结果。我们建议(1)评估天然纳米矿物的广谱抗菌效果，(2)评估水合矿物治疗小鼠局部细菌感染的能力，以及(3)确定天然抗菌矿物的作用机制，以及这些矿物如何在结构和转录上影响细菌细胞。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our capacity to properly address the worldwide incidence of infectious diseases lies in the ability to detect, prevent, and effectively treat these infections. With increasing overuse and misuse of antibiotics, infectious bacteria have become increasingly antibiotic-resistant. Therefore, identifying and analyzing inhibitory agents is a worthwhile endeavor since few new antibacterial compounds have been produced in recent decades. The use of natural nanominerals to heal skin infections has been evident since the earliest recorded history, and specific clay minerals may prove valuable in the treatment of bacterial diseases, including infections for which there are no effective antibiotics, such as Buruli ulcer and multi- drug resistant infections. The rationale for the proposed research is based on several observations and realizations: (a) Specific clay minerals have been used to treat and heal children afflicted with Buruli ulcer, a necrotic cutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans; (b) Susceptibility testing of the minerals that were used to treat Buruli ulcer and two additional minerals revealed bactericidal or bacteriostatic activity against several different bacterial pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant strains; and (c) Use of antibacterial minerals would provide an inexpensive, alternative therapeutic treatment for topical infections. Considering the lack of therapeutics for treating necrotic M. ulcerans infections and other life-threatening skin infections, such as MRSA, our goals are to validate the observations that specific minerals can heal bacterial infections by investigating broad-spectrum antibacterial characteristics of the clay minerals and determining the mechanism of action of these bioactive minerals. We propose to (1) assess the broad-spectrum antibacterial effects of natural nanominerals, (2) evaluate the ability of hydrated minerals to treat topical bacterial infections in mice, and (3) determine the mechanism of action of the natural antibacterial minerals and how the minerals structurally and transcriptionally affect bacterial cells.