Antibiotic resistance: Big issue – tiny solutions?
Antibiotics have been used in medicine for a long time: these materials inhibit the bacteria’s life processes and growth, what results in the destruction of the bacteria. Although they didn’t know they were using antibiotic therapy, in the ancient Egypt and Greece mould and plants were applied to treat infections. From this example we can see, that not only synthetic material can be antibiotic: naturally occur compounds which can destroy bacteria, and what in the last 100 years we have learned to improve. Nevertheless bacteria can learn too, that’s why antibiotic resistance is a really serious threat. In everyday language resistance means that bacteria have “learned” some ways to avoid the destroying effect of the antibiotics – they have become resistant. Against these resistant bacteria the drugs we use nowadays aren’t effective enough, that is why these pathogens are in a great advance compared to the sensitive ones: resistant strains can grow more easily. As a result of the spreading antibiotic resistance some serious disease are re-appearing e.g. TB (tuberculosis) and cholera. Moreover the cure of illnesses is more challenging: multifarious drugs are needed in a higher dose which increases the side effects too.
In the ancient Egypt plants were used to cure infections
Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat so it’s not surprising that this issue is one of the main topics in the EuroScience Open Forum which is held this year in Manchester. I’m one of the lucky ones, who will travel to Manchester as a member of the delegation from the Hungarian Eötvös Lóránd University. I can participate– among other events – in a session of lectures dedicated to the current questions and the potential solutions of the antibiotic resistance. In this article I describe some of the most promising methods.
The discovery of antibiotics was a huge step in the history of the fight against pathogens. Thanks to this result nowadays it is common to treat several infections with such drugs. However, the excessive – and in many cases unnecessary - use of these agents led to the spreading of resistant bacterium strains. Bacteria’s fast evolution resulted in the emergence of multi-resistant strains, which are resistant to more agents at the same time. Against these strains drugs are given in a higher dosage, what intensifies the side effects. That is why numerous research groups are working on the development, finding and testing novel antibiotics.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria can easily proliferate
One of the novel therapeutic targets are proteins that are responsible for evolving so called biofilms. The formation of biofilms is common in the world of pathogen bacteria. Biofilms are a special formation of bacteria cells, and can almost be considered as an organism. Bacteria which form these biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics. That’s why inhibiting biofilm organization could be a good strategy. Two of the ESOF speakers – William Durham and Susanne Häussler are researching the formation and inhibition of biofilms.
So how can we find the most promising agents reliable and fast? Nowadays in the pharmaceutical industry, methods which scan millions of compounds with computers are commonly applied. As a result thousands of drug candidates are defined, but their efficiency is questionable: further examinations are needed. The methods mentioned above use “power” to solve these issues: in the end there will be some compounds which can be used. Although this method tends to deliver good results on the long term, the spreading resistance could be so serious threat that further, more effective methods are needed.
Slava Epstein's research group served a more elegant solution. They returned to the “golden era” of antibiotics, when these compounds were found with the culturing of microbes (e. g. other bacteria and fungi). Alexander Fleming has discovered penicillin when his bacterial culture has been infected by mould fungi, which inhibited the bacteria’s growth. The innovation in Slava’s resaerch is that they can culture bacteria which yet weren’t possible. They have developed the so called “iChip” technology. It’s basic idea is actually that we grant the bacteria the conditions they like. E. g. a bacterium that lives in the soil would be cultured in soil not in an artificial broth. With the usage of this iChip technology they have described numerous new bacteria, and because different microbes inhibit each other’s growth it’s not surprising that they’ve found agents with brand new mechanisms of action.
The iChip helps to culture microbes in the environment they like
Another method which has been known before – and is now re-discovered - is the bacteriophage-therapy. Bacteriophages are tiny organisms – viruses which proliferate in bacteria causing the decay of the bacteria. During their evolution bacteriophages have developed a great number of mechanisms to destroy the bacteria. Furthermore they are usually bacterium-specific, so they don’t harm neither the human body nor the useful microbes which live in it. With this therapy we would use a naturally occurring phenomenon – bacteria-killing viruses – for our own benefit.
Bacteriophages kill bacteria naturally too
What can be done until these new agents come to the market? Roy Kishony – one of the speakers in ESOF – is researching new therapeutic solutions in which new combinations of currently used antibiotics are applied. This can increase the efficiency of the therapies.
Can we do anything in the everyday life against the antibiotic resistance? More, than we think! Decisions made by doctors and patients mean a lot in stopping or slowing down the resistance’s spreading! E. g. it is important to reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. But the ones which are reasonably prescribed, we have to take all of the medicine, we shouldn’t end the cure beforehand just because our symptoms have past and “we know better”. Both sides – doctor and patient – have a great responsibility in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
If you follow our ESOF posts, you can read more about the issue and the researchers.
