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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.

As long as there have been mice, people have sought a better mousetrap. And since we figured out that bacteria can make us sick, we’ve searched for better antibiotics². Now scientists in Canada and Japan have come up with a new way to disarm³ the bugs⁴ that cause food poisoning.

Most antibiotics directly attack the microbes that make us ill. Penicillin⁵, for example, weakens bugs’ tough outer wall to the point that many of them simply explode. While such treatment kills the bacteria, it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the threat. Because a lot of bugs produce toxins⁷, and it’s the toxins that knock us for a loop. Blowing up the bugs can just make things worse.

What these researchers have designed is a drug that helps the body mop up bacterial⁸ toxins. In their study, a single injection of the drug protected mice from the potentially lethal⁹ effects of shiga toxin⁶, the sick-making molecule¹⁰ produced by the kinds of E. coli that cause food poisoning. Their results appear in the October 28th issue of the Proceedings¹¹ of the National Academy of Sciences. With antibiotic¹ resistance on the rise, having more weapons in our antibacterial arsenal¹² is not a bad idea. Because anyone who’s eaten the sun-baked potato salad can tell you food poisoning is no picnic.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.