Actor Keanu Reeves
A group of scientists have created a molecular compound that is so effective at eliminating disease-causing fungi that they named it after Keanu Reeves.
Since the movies “Matrix” and “John Wick”, Keanu Reeves has shown how “bad guy” he is. Now the world of science is ready to recognize this, reported the unilad.
The molecular compound, called “Keanumycins” and developed by the Bio Pilot Plant, in Germany, it is a lipopeptide that manages to kill, without effort, fungi that are dangerous to health. A study on this innovation was published recently in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
“Lipopeptides kill so effectively that we named them after Keanu Reeves because he is also extremely deadly in his roles,” explained Sebastian Gotze, the study’s lead author.
If used in low concentrations, “Keanumycins” are not toxic for human cells, according to tests carried out to date. This makes it attractive to the development of new antibiotics (medicines that prevent fungal infections).
“We have an antifungal crisis”, indicated the researcher, indicating that the substance was tested against several fungi that infect humans. “We found that it strongly inhibits the pathogenic fungus candida albicansamong others,” he said.
In 2022, the World Health Organization reported that fungi were the greatest threat to health and ranked the candida albicans as one of 19 “critical priority” fungal pathogens.
“They cause devastating disease but have been neglected for so long that we barely understand the scale of the problem.”
fungal infections result in approximately 1.7 million deaths per year and, as the planet warms, that number is also increasing, revealed a study published at national library of medicine.
ZAP // 
