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Possible Antibiotic for MRSA Superbug

darkmeridian writes "Merck has discovered a possible treatment for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a virulent superbug resistant to many current antibiotics. The new compound, platensimycin, was found in a sample of South African soil and works by preventing the bacteria from assembling fatty acids into its cell membrane. This mechanism of action is novel among antibiotics, most of which currently block DNA assembly or protein assembly. Of course, this product still has to undergo human testing, but apparently looks promising."

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  1. /. modding can sometimes suck... by racecarj · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    so i was one of the first posters on this thread and originally was +3 insightful. then some guy comes and says i should use wikipedia as a source, i go down to 2 and he goes up to 5 even though he just regurgitated what i said with a few links to a web site that is dubious at best (although i love wikipedia).

    now i'm down to +1 redundant because more people came and replied to an earlier post, saying the same things i did... because they are listed earlier earlier even though i posted mine first.

    now this message will probably get modded -1 flamebait even though i'm not trying to flame. it should get modded +5 pity.