"Mine is an evil laugh!"
- colistin-resistant E. coli strain
- colistin-resistant E. coli strain
Short background
For years now, humanity has been fighting a constant battle against pathogenic bacteria. The discovery of antibiotics was a milestone, but as it turns out every time we managed to defeat these microscopic villains, some managed to transform into a variant that could resist our arsenal of antibiotics. For most antibiotics, the timespan between discovery of a new antibiotic and a resistant strain emerging has been only a few years after their introduction (table).
For about well over two to three decades, the increase of our arsenal has steadily declinedFig. 1, which is most likely a consequence of the low profitability of antibiotics research and production. Most commonly, small research groups tend to do the work and then pass over their result to a pharmaceutical company for clinical trials (because most often these small groups can't fund such trials). For pharmaceutical companies, the cost to develop these life-saving drugs is often not sufficiently compensate for by later profits, as most often a patent has to be filed before the drug can actually be sold, and by the time it can be sold the patent will run out before a substantial profit can be made, which is why these companies will often opt for more profitable drug research and development.
Governments have tried to give incentives to companies to put their work into this kind of life-saving research, but it seems time may not be on their/our side.
Topic of the thread
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to- ... d-the-u-s/
A bacterial strain has been discovered that is resistant to our "last resort" antibiotic. While this is not alarming at the moment, it does mean the bacterial gene pool now contains a gene that imparts this resistance, and bacteria have mechanisms for "horizontal gene transfer" (i.e. passing on specific genes from one bacteria to another, which isn't directly "related" to it. Imagine it as being able to give one of your genes to your friend).
In places where there is a strong selective pressure (e.g. hospitals, etc.) only the bacteria that can resist the right antibiotics may survive, which increases the likelihood of this gene being spread more as those than don't have it will just wither and die. While the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is an inevitability, it has been expedited by mankind's irresponsible use of antibiotics. Putting it in animal feed, taking it for the common flu (something antibiotics can't do anything about), and so on.
It certainly does concern me, though there are alternatives to antibiotics so I'm hoping those will be put through the necessary checks before any toti-resistant bacteria emerges. There was talk about an alternative treatment that essentially "blows up" bacterial cells, but their applicability would be limited as not to harm your native bacterial population. Phage therapy has also been a promising alternative, which involves the use of bacteriophages (viruses that attack bacteria), but as far as I know this road isn't very popular in the West and is met with strict regulations.
So, to get down to the question here: what do you think about this development, NSG? Does it concern you? Is antibiotics reaching a dead end? Do you know of any other alternatives to antibiotics?
