Scientists have found a way to convert recycled plastic into a new drug that can kill even the toughest fungal infections In a collaborative study, a team of researchers at Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and a team at IBM Research lab in Almaden, Calif. (IBM) have developed a new drug that could revolutionize how fungal infections are treated. In 2010, fungal infections cost $3 billion to treat worldwide, and that number is expected to increase to $6 billion by 2014. This increase is due to an ever-growing population of immune-compromised patients who have diseases like HIV or cancer. Learn About the Changing Face of HIV »

Growing Drug Resistance “Currently, we have a very limited number of antifungal drugs,” said lead researcher Dr. Yi Yan Yang at IBN in an interview with Healthline. “Most antifungal drugs in the clinic do not kill the fungus, they just suppress its growth. This is why, when the environment is suitable, the fungal infection will come back again.” That’s not the only problem with current treatments. As with bacteria and antibiotics, fungi are developing resistance to antifungal medications, requiring higher and higher doses of the drug to kill these infections. This puts the patient at risk because current antifungal drugs have a hard time telling the difference between fungal cells and healthy human cells, so high doses of the drugs can damage a patient’s kidneys and blood cells. Learn More About Fungal Infections »

A New Direction of Attack The new drug candidate solves many of the problems facing current antifungal medications. Yang’s team made a compound that self-assembles into small, short nanofibers. Using an electrostatic charge, the fibers target the oppositely charged cell membrane of invading fungi. The nanofibers penetrate the fungal cell’s membrane, causing the membrane to burst and killing the invader. “Our nanostructures can actually kill the fungal cells instead of only suppressing the cells’ growth,” said Yang. “Because our antifungal action is through disrupting the membrane of the fungal cells, the fungal cells are not able to develop drug resistance.” And because of the nanofibers’ electrostatic charge, the drug won’t harm animal cells. The membranes of animal cells have a neutral charge, meaning that positively and negatively charged molecules can’t interact with them. So the new drug targets fungi while leaving healthy human cells alone. In fungal cell cultures in the lab, the new nanofibers were able to destroy more than 99.9 percent of the cells in just one hour. The fungus didn’t develop any resistance to the new drug, even after eleven treatments. In mice with fungal eye infections, the nanofibers successfully treated the infections without any toxic side effects. By comparison, Fluoconazole, a common antifungal drug, didn’t destroy the fungi, but prevented the infection from growing further. The fungi also developed resistance to Fluconazole after only six treatments. Related News: New Rapid Blood Test Tells You Whether Infection Is Viral or Bacterial »