Resistance is Futile

It has been 83 years since Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin and started one of the most important revolutions in healthcare: The Invention of Antibiotics.
Yet less than a century later we are facing a crisis in the making. Bacterial Resistance has become so effective that new strains of Carbapenem -resistant bacteria have been discovered that are unaffected by the most powerful antibiotics we posses. How have we arrived at this stage so quickly?


Bacterial resistance is certainly not a new topic in medical research. As soon as we started using antibiotics frequently the bacteria have fought back, overcoming penicillin in the fifties, Methicillin in the eighties and even vancomycin in the 90's. For decades we have been embroiled in an arms race with bacteria who are able to rapidly evolve ways of fighting back against each new drug that we are able to develop. And now we have confirmed resistance to Carbapenems, the most powerful broad-spectrum antibiotics available to doctors.


Scientists have identified a new gene found in gram- negative bacteria, called NDM-1 (New Dehli metallo-beta-lactamase, after where the first case was hospitalized) which codes for a protein that inactivates any antibiotics that attack.

Gram- negative bacteria have now developed resistance to the Carbapenems

I guess we should not be surprised that bacteria have evolved to such a high level of resistance. While it may take 10 years to develop a new drug, bacteria can divide every 20 minutes. When these bacteria are multiplying in an area of such high antibiotic pressure as a hospital, evolution will favour that bacteria that develop resistance, and fast. Some bacteria also have the exceptional ability to transfer genes coding for drug resistance between them via their plasmid DNA, thus bestowing resistance upon new species that have never been exposed to the drug. 
We have also aided bacteria in their cause by liberally prescribing antibiotics for minor infections and by providing breeding grounds for superbugs with low standards in crowded hospitals. Now we may be on the brink of paying the price for our negligence.


Cases of such 'superbugs' are currently low, with probably no more than 1000 Carbapenem- resistant cases worldwide. But without proper precautions being taken, and without any new classes of antibiotics being developed, the near future is looking grim for our ability to treat serious infections.






references:
'The Enemy Within' Scientific American April 2011


Does broad-spectrum β-lactam resistance due to NDM-1 herald the end of the antibiotic era for treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria?


Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK: a molecular, biological, and epidemiological study


Gram- Negative Bacteria picture

Small but Extreme

I was planning on writing about the new genetic discoveries related to Alzheimer's today but something else caught my eye, and it just seemed more interesting.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110404/full/news.2011.207.html

Some Chilean scientists have reported finding over 300 new types of microorganisms during a recent expedition to the Antarctic. Not necessarily that interesting you might say except that some of the species they found were pretty damn cool: Microorganisms that can survive in extreme environments!

They found microbes that can survive in temperatures of below -15C and even above 95C. Microbes that can survive in  high levels of salt and at extreme pH levels. 

Microbes resistant to UV light was a particularly interesting one. The mechanisms behind that may provide an insight into protecting us from sun burn and consequently skin cancer.

It all doesn't seem that ground breaking but it left me pretty impressed with the utterly extreme conditions in which some microbes can survive, and certainly makes the idea of life on other planets not that hard to comprehend. 

PS: the two papers that were published on Alzheimer's the other day were pretty important. They found several new genes linked to the disease. Finding genes such as these is the first step in discovering whether there are any therapeutic treatments are possible.

the links to the two papers are below:

http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.801.html

http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.803.html