I remember the day when my younger brother woke up feeling ill with a strep throat infection. His voice was barely a whisper, and even water was hard to swallow. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin solution, and though he was meant to take it for 10 days, the improvement after just one dose was incredible. He was back to his lively self within a few days. If left untreated, his strep could have turned dangerous, spreading or causing complications.
My mom’s childhood experience emphasized this further. Her untreated strep throat led to rheumatic fever, inflaming her joints and putting her heart at risk. Seemingly minor infections can escalate into something far more serious without intervention. I think moments like these make us all appreciate the medical tools we have today.
Fungi in Antibiotics…
Imagine living at a time when even small paper cuts and minor infections like those I mentioned above could be deadly. Diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, and cholera were haunting everyone to the point that you started to think it was a dangerous time to be a human. For centuries, this was the reality, until the discovery from an unlikely source changed everything: fungi. In the fight against infectious diseases, fungi have been powerful allies.
Our story begins with the most known antibiotics of all: penicillin. In 1928, a Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming noticed something peculiar happening in his bacterial cultures: a mold, Penicillium notatum, had contaminated his plates, but instead of ruining his experiment, the mold was killing off the surrounding bacteria. Fleming could have dismissed it as fluke, but instead he got to work. He carefully isolated the substance produced by the mold, which was stunting the bacteria growth, and named it ‘penicillin’. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 was awarded jointly to Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey “for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases”
Penicillin (here is an article by CDC) was called “silver bullet” when it was first discovered, because it had the unprecedented ability to kill a variety of harmful bacteria without being toxic to humans. However, for about a decade, Fleming’s discovery didn’t get the attention it deserved. As a biologist rather than a chemist, he faced challenges he couldn’t overcome alone. A group of researchers at Oxford University picked up where Fleming’s discovery left off, and transformed penicillin into a true life-saving force. Today, penicillin is one of the most widely used antibiotics.
Why Do Fungi Produce Antibiotics?
But why do fungi produce antibiotics in the first place? The answer is survival. Fungi, like Penicillium, live in highly competitive environments, filled with bacteria and other microorganisms. In order to gain advantage, fungi evolve the ability to synthesize chemical compounds that inhibit and kill these microorganisms. These antibiotics are typically secondary metabolites, which are chemical compounds fungi produce to survive and compete with other microbes in their environment. This evolutionary adaptation has, fortunately for us, become a valuable tool in combating diseases.
Challenges of Antibiotics
Even though fungi give us the tools to combat diseases that were once deadly, they still come with their own set of challenges. Bacteria are survivors, constantly evolving to resist the strongest antibiotics. Antibiotics kill most bacteria, but those with resistance genes can survive and multiply, leading to infections that no longer respond to standard treatments. Take methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, for example—this bacterium has developed resistance to all penicillins, making it exceptionally difficult to treat. It’s estimated that antimicrobial-resistant infections killed more than 1 million people worldwide in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. This growing resistance has encouraged efforts to find new antibiotics and explore alternatives, like bacteriophages (tiny viruses that infect and destroy bacteria).
In the face of rising antibiotic resistance, researchers worldwide are exploring new strategies to stay ahead of evolving bacteria. A study by Michigan State University develops a promising vaccine to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, specifically targeting Staphylococcus aureus. Their innovative carbohydrate-based vaccine uses an antigen (any substance that causes your body to make an immune response against it) called PNAG, which offers protection against multiple bacteria at once. Prof. Huang and his team explored different PNAG structures to identify the most effective combinations for inducing immunity. This breakthrough in vaccine development is an important step in tackling antibiotic resistance.
fungitopia.org 
