You ’ll find nisin in quite a lot of your food — particularly the food that has to be shelf - stable . Some people calculate askance at preservative , but not only is this one all - natural , it has just been shown to shoot down neoplasm cell and antibiotic resistant bacterium .
A late article in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy , with the refreshful short title of “ Biomedical Applications of Nisin ” item the work of scientists at the University of Michigan . They ’ve found that nisin might be a way to combat two of the great medical problem of our time .
Nisin is a bacteriocin , a protein put out by bacterium to kill off the competition . Bacteriocins , especially nisin , are uncouth among lactic acid bacteria — the bacterium that are responsible for turning milk into cheese , yoghurt , and other dairy farm product . It ’s one of the reason manifestly spoiled Milk River is safe to eat . Nisin was too dear a bactericidal federal agent to keep to the dairy farm aisle , so food manufacturersadded itto processed sum , dip , salad dressing , and soup . It ’s safe , it ’s rude , and now it looks like it could facilitate people stay alive .
The researcher from the University of Michigan gave mice with head and neck opening neoplasm a Brobdingnagian dose of a highly purified version of nisin over nine weeks . At the end of the discussion , the nisin had kill between 70 and 80 percentage of the tumour cells .
Nisin also kill off bacterium — include MRSA . First it go against up biofilms , slimy Colony of bacteria that adhere together to protect themselves from other bactericidal influence . When nisin assail an individual bacterium , it binds to the bacteria and prevent it from pump up its defense and turning into a “ superbug . ” Just to top things off , the investigator believe that nisin may spark off the host ’s immune response , helping the trunk itself fight bacterial infection .
So far , the tumour - kill applications of nisin have only been shown to chance in computer mouse . A similar dose scaled up for homo would be something like twenty to thirty advil - sized tablets of extremely purified nisin .. Still , this is good news . We may have a natural , relatively - light - to - get elbow room to contend both Crab and life - threatening bacterial infections .
[ Biomedical Applications of Nisin ]
Image : Doc . RNDr . Josef Reischig , CSc .
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