A probiotic cream could make visits to extremely cold environments a little bit safer Aurora Photos, USA
Polar explorers and deep-water divers could one day apply a probiotic cream to their skin to ward off frostbite or hypothermia. This optimism comes after scientists genetically engineered bacteria that naturally live on our skin to detect temperature, and produce more heat when needed, for the first time.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very creative work. You can imagine this cream being the difference between getting frostbite or not,鈥 says at Columbia University in New York, who wasn’t involved in the research. 鈥淚 can think of many applications 鈥 from keeping warm in winter, preventing frostbite during expeditions, to deep-water diving 鈥 where generating heat is important.鈥
at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and his colleagues genetically engineered a strain of the bacterium Cutibacterium acnes, one of the most abundant microbes on healthy skin, to produce twice as much heat as normal. They did this by using CRISPR, a genetic tool, to change levels of a protein called arcC that is involved in generating energy.
The team also used CRISPR to change the expression of heat-sensitive genes in a separate batch of C. acnes. This meant the microbes could detect temperatures above 32掳C (90掳F), which they flagged via a fluorescent signal.
Together, the findings provide the first proof of concept that skin bacteria could be engineered to produce more heat in response to a temperature change, says Nevot S谩nchez. The team now needs to combine these two abilities in the same bacteria, and demonstrate that they can detect a dangerous drop in temperature, not just when it is high.
Free newsletter
Sign up to Eight Weeks to a 午夜福利1000集合ier You
Your science-backed guide to the easy habits that will help you sleep well, stress less, eat smarter and age better.
Nevot S谩nchez says the team has conducted experiments, which haven鈥檛 yet been published, that show C. acnes聽strains can survive when mixed into a cream.
鈥淲e could develop a probiotic cream that you put over most of the body – before hiking into cold places, for instance – to prevent hypothermia,鈥 says Nevot S谩nchez, who presented the research at the Synthetic Biology for 午夜福利1000集合 and Sustainability conference in Hinxton, UK, on 12 March. It could even help people who live in harsh climates and don鈥檛 have heating, he says.
But further research is needed to test the extent to which such a cream actually heats up human skin samples in the lab and on mice before testing it on people, says Wang. Engineering ways to kill off the bacteria when desired – by applying a second cream, for instance 鈥 will also be crucial to limit potential side effects, such as overheating,聽says Nevot S谩nchez.
Topics:
