UNAM researchers developed three antibiotics from scorpion venom (Diplocentrus melici) and habanero defensin peptides targeting TB, S. aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Key Takeaways
Two benzoquinone molecules from Diplocentrus melici venom showed efficacy against M. tuberculosis and S. aureus in mouse models; both patented in Mexico and South Africa.
Blue benzoquinone also active against Acinetobacter baumannii, a high-priority hospital pathogen resistant to most antibiotics.
Habanero-derived defensin J1-1 produced via submerged fermentation as XisHar J1-1; effective against P. aeruginosa in lab strains, not yet tested on patient-isolated resistant strains.
Next steps require nanoparticle stabilizers for safe delivery, clinical trials, and pharmaceutical partnership for scale-up – all unfunded as of publication.
Stanford’s Richard Zare contributed physical chemistry validation; findings have Mexican patents but no pharma partner yet.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters flagged sloppy science writing: the article calls benzoquinones “colorless” then immediately describes one as blue and one as red, undermining credibility of the coverage.
Skepticism runs high on translation from lab to clinic; commenters cited Epimerox as a cautionary example – a broad-spectrum, low-resistance-risk antibiotic that vanished after promising lab results with no updates in over a decade.
The habanero result’s own authors admit a key limitation: testing used lab strains, not resistant clinical isolates, making efficacy against real-world AMR bacteria unproven.
Notable Comments
@pshirshov: points to Epimerox as a decade-old precedent for promising antibiotics that never leave the lab, framing this announcement with warranted caution.
