Italian researchers are seeking a Trojan horse against an olive bug that could help solve the world's antibiotics bind.
''We've seen generations of ever-more powerful antiobiotics which, far from meeting hopes of eradicating disease, have spawned increasingly strong 'vendetta' bacteria,'' said Stefania Tegli of Florence University, noting that killers like tuberculosis have made an unforeseen comeback in many parts of the world.
Tegli's team is looking at ways of breaking this ''perverse spiral'' by targeting the germ mechanisms that humans have in common with plants.
The most promising bacterium they have found, pseudomonas savastanoi, causes a disease called olive knot in which olive trees get fatal tumours.
Working with two Italian bioengineering firms, PeptLab and Genexpress, the Florence University researchers are trying to make the germ inoffensive and incapable of mutating into more virulent forms.
''We have radically changed strategy,'' Tegli said.
''We have replaced conventional antibiotics with special molecules that can work their way into the vitals of bacteria to wipe out their ability to trigger disease.
''In other words, we're trying to win the war with a Trojan horse rather than carpet bombing''.
Tegli's team has so far identified 12 potential targets for new molecules in the olive-tree bug.
''For each target we'll now have to find and test at least one molecule that can disarm the bacterium while leaving it alive''.
She cautioned that ''it's going to be a complex operation that could take a very long time''.
''But if it works, humanity will owe a huge debt to olive knot''.
