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Microorganisms of mines and caves would give rise to new antibiotics

Can paleolithic caves hide the solution for diseases of the 21st century? Can a bacterium save millions of lives? Portuguese and Spanish researchers are convinced that this is the case and they work together in search of new treatments.

Paleolithic caves, underwater caves and abandoned mines are a hotbed for microorganisms that have survived changes in their habitat for thousands of years and that, today, can hide the key to the development of antibiotics and antitumor drugs.

Locate the bacteria, proceed to their analysis and study their possible use for the medical field is a complex process that requires meticulous research developed by a group of Portuguese and Spanish specialists in the hands of the ProBioma project (Prospecting in Underground Environments of Microbial Bioactive Compounds with potential use for Medicine, Agriculture and Environment).

The Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville coordinates the project, in which the Sevillian company Mining Services of Andalusia and the Portuguese universities of Évora and the Algarve participate, with the support of the Interreg Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Program (Poctep) of the European Union.

Its area of ​​activity extends to eight caves and mines located in the Iberian pyrite belt, in western Andalusia – near Rio Tinto, in Huelva -, and Alentejo and the Algarve in Portuguese territory.

An initiative in which specialists from both sides of the border work with state-of-the-art equipment with a common goal: to increase the global pharmacopoeia and stop new diseases. And they do it in “portuñol”.

LAS BACTERIAS, FROM VILLANAS TO HEROÍNAS

Historically considered “villains” responsible for multiple diseases, scientists now look at bacteria as microorganisms with an extraordinary ability to adapt to create self-defense and survive in extreme environments.

A potential that makes them key elements in the search for new treatments against tumor ailments and infections. And that’s what ProBioma project experts work on.

“Mines and caves, considered of extreme environment, are studied to find bacteria that have a different metabolism, which may give rise to the composition of antibiotics and antitumor agents necessary to expand the limited number that exists in the market,” explains Cesáreo Sainz Jiménez, Project coordinator at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville.

Paleolithic caves, underwater caves and mines “are unknown biodiversity niches,” says Ana Teresa Caldeira, from the Hercules laboratory at the University of Évora.

“Microorganisms are sometimes associated with degradation processes in heritage and end up being the bad guys in history, but they have great potential and looking at them from the valuation point of view is a great incentive in this project,” he says.

The search focuses on “bacteria and fungi with the ability to produce substances of interest to both medicine and the environment,” he continues. In abandoned caves and mines, for example, bacteria are developed that can contribute to the cleanliness of contaminated water, says Clara Costa, from the Center for Marine Sciences of the University of Algarve.

FROM THE PALEOLITHIC TO THE SUPER COMPUTER

Catia Salvador carefully takes a sample in the Escoural cave. Just a touch with a swab is enough to analyze the DNA of a microorganism with the most advanced techniques in the Hercules laboratory. The Escoural is one of the strategic points of the project.

His discovery, in 1963, identified for the first time vestiges of paleolithic rock art in Portugal. In its stone walls you can still see traces of painting and engravings from 50,000 years ago. And next to them, a universe of bacteria. The sample taken by Catia will be analyzed at the University of Évora, but it could also be studied with a “mobile laboratory”, a next-generation device not much larger than a mobile phone, which allows data to be transmitted to a laptop and to replicate copies of DNA

The samples, this young Portuguese researcher continues, are then sent to “supercomputers” in a US laboratory. via Internet. The result comes in just a few weeks. The tests are not limited to bacteria. Some species of fungi and mushrooms, for example, may be the basis of new treatments.

This is the case of the Amanita Ponderosa, which grows in Alentejo, Andalusia, Extremadura and some areas of Morocco. In the Hercules laboratory, isolated cultures are carried out in liquid medium to produce compounds that, Caldeira notes, “can be interesting from the point of view of antioxidant and antitumor activity.”

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