Neither dodos nor mammoths, the new great promise of de-extinction is Neanderthal antibiotics

While some teams of biologists try to resurrect entire species, others settle for something a little more affordable but perhaps with a greater impact on our well-being: recover extinct molecules with our ancestors. It is molecular de-extinction, and among its first objectives are the Neanderthal antibiotics.

Homo neanderthalensis and H. denizova (Neanderthals and Denisovans) are the hominin species closest to contemporary humans (Homo sapiens). They have also been the protagonists of a new work that tried to search in the genetics of these species for new antibiotics with which to treat bacterial infections that pose a growing threat due to the appearance of bacteria. increasingly resistant to treatments.

Efforts to recover extinct species and those seeking to recover molecules start from similar beginnings. The first thing is to recover so many segments of DNA of the remains found as possible.

Since the remains we found belong to individuals who lived tens or even hundreds of thousands of years ago, recovering genes is very complicated, but the more complete these sections are, the greater the probability of extracting useful information.

Even though these are incomplete samples of the genetic map of extinct hominins, the amount of information to be processed is vast. The researchers responsible for this study They trained an artificial intelligence model, panCleaveto search for which sections of the DNA chain would encode which proteins, and which of these associated molecules could potentially serve as antibiotics today.

Once these molecules with antibiotic potential were synthesized, the next step was to Test the capacity of the most promising molecules in vitro and in vivousing mice as animal models, to confirm its bactericidal potential and also anticipate possible unwanted effects.

The empirical tests did not always match expectations: some of the molecules were not able to kill bacteria, while others required very high doses to do so. The details of this process have been published in an article in an article in the magazine Cell Host & Microbe.

Behind this effort is the Galician Cesar de la Fuentewho heads the Molecular Biology Group at the University of Pennsylvania. De la Fuente and his team They are also responsible for giving a name to this process of “molecular de-extinction” (‘molecular de-extinction’).

Creating medicines is a costly, lengthy process with no guarantee of success, and it is in this context that molecular de-extinction can play a decisive role. This new tool promises to condense years of research and development into a two-step process.

Superbacteria

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the threats that modern medicine is trying to address in order to avoid returning to the era in which infectious diseases decimated the populations of all human societies: the post-antibiotic era.

It is estimated that in 2019 antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed 1,000 people. between 1.2 and 5 million peopleAdded to this are the numerous infections that do not cause death and the fact that if nothing changes, the situation will progressively worsen.

To the de-extinction still there is still a long way to go. Even though they have been able to synthesize molecules from genes of extinct hominins, these “new” compounds still have to pass through all the filters that are required for any pharmacological treatment. For now, the first candidates have not achieved a high success rate in the laboratory and fundamental aspects such as the ease with which infectious agents can also develop resistance to these compounds remain to be tested.

Another potentially controversial issue is how patent and intellectual property laws could be applied to these cases. This is an issue that affects other forms of de-extinction, such as mammoths, dodos or Tasmanian tigers. The current consensus prevents patenting substances that occur naturally in our environment (although there are compensation mechanisms for companies that take advantage of this ecosystem service to compensate countries that protect the ecosystems in which these substances occur).

De-extinction, however, is uncharted territory. Many of the efforts to recover species can be linked to this interest in searching in their genes for ways to synthesize “lost” compounds for nature. While de-extinction of animals can bring ethical dilemmas and legislative challenges, focusing on the recovery of “simple” molecules can make the process easier.

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*A previous version of this article was published in August 2023