Although not completely destroy bacterial and viral infections, penicillin has been a revolution in medicine and its introduction has saved hundreds of millions of lives in the last century. It was unique for its broad spectrum of activity. But since its introduction in medical practice so far appeared many new, exotic and constantly evolving strains of viruses and bacteria that are terrible for health capability - develop resistance to even our most powerful antibiotics.

Scientists at the lab "Lincoln" at MIT are about to end this constant race between human antibiotics and antibiotic resistance of microorganisms.
 
They created a drug that has proven effective against almost all strains of 15 of the most common viruses in the world. Rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 flu, stomach viruses, polio virus, dengue fever and other hemorrhagic viruses, causing internal bleeding.

At present there are few drugs which are effective against specific viruses, such as HIV protease inhibitors controlling agent responsible for AIDS. Unfortunately, they are expensive and often - susceptible to viral resistance. Therefore, the researchers introduced a new approach to the problem - light, which searches and finds the infected cells, not with the virus, and with any type of viral agents. Once localized, these cells are destroyed to prevent the spread of infection.

When a virus particle infects a cell, it "distracts" cellular structures and makes them subject to one goal: to create more copies of the virus. They leave the cell, often destroying her in the process and invade new cells for the same purpose. During the process of replication, viruses establish long strands of the double-stranded RNA which is not present in human or animal organisms. The human body has a protective mechanism that is triggered by the detection of similar chains, but many viruses are able to evade detection and cause delayed immune response that usually starts too late.

To prevent this problem, Todd Rider, head of the research group introduced a new strategy against the attackers. According to it, a much more efficient than the current inducing an enhanced immune response would be, if coupled with a protein binding to the foreign RNA of another protein that induces apoptosis - programmed cell death. Similar compounds exist in nature and the team was able to combine them. Because of their natural origin, they are capable of little aid to pass through the cell membranes of all human tissues and cells. When the drug gets into the infected cell, he programmed for self-destruction, but through uninfected cells, this remains intact.

The drug has been proven non-toxic, and its few side effects do not cause serious health threats. It has already passed laboratory and experimental stage and soon became its clinical trials. If they also succeed, scientists are convinced: up to 3 years the drug could be on the market.
 
They are proud of their successes achieved so far because they believe they have found a "penicillin of the 21st century."

Antibiotic resistance - the ability of pathogens to evolve and overcome the antibiotic preparations is about to collide with an unexpected ending. New research allows the silver to deter frighteningly rapid adaptation of microorganisms to the drugs, which the discovery of penicillin has increase exponentially. Currently, data on resistance to accumulate and it proved to be amplified, while the amount of new antibiotics in development or on the market falls.

There are thousands of written information about the healing power of silver. Today there are many homeopathic preparations containing precious metals. According to proponents of homeopathy silver enhances immunity and heals the body. These therapies, however, are unpredictable and sometimes have an effect sometimes - not. What is certain and confirmed, however we offer James Collins, a researcher from the University "Boston" Massachusetts.

His team has discovered how the metal in the form of dissolved ions, damaging bacteria. It makes them more membrane permeable and disrupts intracellular harmony of balance, leading to over-production of highly reactive and toxic oxygen compounds. When using silver solution in relatively small quantities as a supplement to the antibiotic, the scientific team found that the antibiotic kills from 10 to 1,000 times more bacteria. More permeable membranes allow more antibiotics to invade rogue cells, exacerbating the drug repeatedly.

Development of a pill is still in its infancy, as it should be considered the optimal amount of silver - enough to help, not harm. Even in moderate doses, it causes argyria - a disease in which the skin becomes permanent blue color. At higher doses, toxic effects are much more dangerous - mainly damage the cardiovascular system.
 
Scientists hope to understand the mechanism by which silver affects the cell walls and create a synthetic compound that perform the same functions, without incurring the side effects of the metal.