The new generation of resistant infections is almost impossible to treat
I've read a lot of stories about antibiotic-resistant infections, but this New Yorker piece by Jerome Groopman called "Superbugs" stands out.
Frederick Ausubel, a bacterial geneticist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, is searching for drugs to combat bacterial virulence, using tiny animals like worms, which have intestinal cells that are similar to those in humans, and which are susceptible to lethal microbial infection. The worm that Ausubel is studying, Caenorhabditis elegans, is one and a half millimetres in length. “You are probably going to have to screen millions of compounds and you can’t screen millions of infected mice,” Ausubel said. “So our approach was to find an alternative host that could be infected with human pathogens which was small enough and cheap enough to be used in drug screens. What’s remarkable is that many common human pathogens, including Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas, will cause intestinal infection and kill the worms. So now you can look for a compound that cures it, that prevents the pathogen from killing the host.” Ausubel first screened some six thousand compounds by hand and found eight, none of them traditional antibiotics, that may protect the worms. He is also attempting, among other potential solutions, to find a compound that would block what is called “quorum sensing,” in which bacteria release small molecules to communicate with one another and signal when a critical mass is present. Once this quorum is reached, the bacteria turn on their virulence genes. “Bacteria don’t want to alert their host that they are there by immediately producing virulence factors which the host would recognize,” triggering the immune system, Ausubel explained. “When they reach a certain quorum, there are too many of them for the host to do anything about it.” Bonnie Bassler, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, has recently shown that it is through quorum sensing that cholera bacteria are able to accumulate in the intestines and release toxins that can be fatal; Pseudomonas is also known to switch on its virulence genes in response to signals from quorum sensing.Superbugs: The new generation of resistant infections is almost impossible to treat (New Yorker)
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Instead of blocking the molecules to communicate with one and other, why not just induce them earlier when there aren't enough bacteria for a quorum to force the body to respond earlier in the infection and tip the scales towards the host?
Actually, the key part of the article is:
"...only six of the five hundred and six drugs currently being developed were new antibacterial agents. Drug companies are looking for blockbuster therapies that must be taken daily for decades, drugs like Lipitor, for high cholesterol, or Zyprexa, for psychiatric disorders, used by millions of people and generating many billions of dollars each year. Antibiotics are used to treat infections, and are therefore prescribed only for days or weeks. (The exception is the use of antibiotics in livestock, which is both a profit-driver and a potential cause of antibiotic resistance.)" [emphasis added]
In other words, Big Pharma is looking to its bottom line and not to the welfare of their customers.
Well, yes.
I once heard the claim that 70% of pharmaceutical companies' budgets are spent on buying up and burying research likely to lead to permanent cures (rather than on-going, and profitable, treatments) for diseases such as cancer.
http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=38126
This is all about animal production. the vast majority of Anti-biotics are now used in animal feed.
There is a special place in Hell reserved for the meat industry lobbyists and officials who worked so hard to keep the misuse of antibiotics legal in the feedlots.
hmm... contagious cancers, untreatable infections, eroding freedoms, abusive cops... a directory of wonderful things ?
don't get me wrong - i value the info and relish the chats, but is it time to change that tagline ? just askin'.
My pet peeve, antibacterial soap. Studies have shown its no better than regular soap and warm water, but it helps promote resistance once it gets diluted.
That, and countries like Mexico where antibiotics are sold over the counter.
I lost two and a half years of my life to a "superbug." PLEASE, if you ever find yourself with Blastocystis hominis (and it's hard to diagnose, took me a year just to figure out I had that particular parasite) get over to badbugs.org and take exactly what they recommend.
"In other words, Big Pharma is looking to its bottom line and not to the welfare of their customers."
Thank God you're here, Captain Obvious! :-)
no need to be rude
Thanks, Ensign Meme.
I've read that some trees cycle through different chemical agents to fend off various pests. Tanin is one such chemical. They communicate via pheromone-like chemicals to tell other trees what works and what doesn't, and they tend to all use the same effective agent until one tree communicates that it's not working, tries something new, and sends the message to use the new agent.
By cycling through a variety of agents, by the time the bugs are immune to recently used ones, they have evolved away their immunities to the old, unused agents, which are again effective when they cycle up again.
I'm no bio-geneticist, but maybe if we took a few antibiotics off the world market for a few years, microbes would evolve away their immunity.
Once evolution makes the old antibiotics useful again, we could cycle through more and more and develop a strategy similar to what trees use.
Of course, there's little corporate profit in doing that so it's probably doomed from the start.
I assure you that antibacterial soaps using alcohol as an antiseptic will not cause antibiotic resistance. Alcohol will destroy bacteria, viruses and fungus. It is far far far more effective than soap which some bacteria have no problem living in (some even live on bars of soap).
Now products containing triclosan are a completely different matter.
Just so you know, people who die from bacteriological diseases are no longer paying customers to big pharma. Now, im not saying that drug companies are angels, but this need to find some bad guy in every story sometimes leads people to jump to irrational conclusions.
FOLKS...This guy in Massachusetts is many years behind!
PBS' "Nova Science Now" program just aired a full story on this very same discovery today
as being handled at Princeton U...this is either plagiarism or coincidence at it best.
Researcher is Bonnie Brassler at Princeton - check her out. Seems she is going full
throttle on this and more.
@JimKirk - Of course, there's little corporate profit in doing that....
Back in Roman times (or anywhere they spoke latin), the corporate profit was your healthy body(corpus). Oh how far we've come.
(also Jim, awesome comment)
Those who are in massive denial about the reality of evolution need to take a closer look at where a "new generation of resistant infections" comes from.
If they're really, really adamant, they could deny themselves the results of "godless, biased" research that would save their lives.
Personally, I see some future in bacteriophage therapy. Unfortunately, it doesn't really fit the business model of big pharma, which probably explains why it was abandoned in the west 50 or so years ago and the only place where research continued was the USSR.
*sigh* Score one for capitalism.
well maybe if we didn't use antibiotics in the first place, we wouldn't be in this situation...
but what do I know. it seems that even these bacteria are smarter than me. I would have never thought of that plan of attack. pure genius
As more and more people drop-out from healthcare altogether (due to lack of affordability), I'm sure we'll get back to developing adequate natural defenses. We'll just have to put-up with streets full of dead for awhile. No biggie.
@getback:
Actually, that episode was a rerun from last year and her name is Bassler–as the article and snippet above mention.
@11 Takuan: wasn't trying to be rude; the smiley emoticon should have been enough to transform my statement to good-natured ribbing. If not, then I apologize for being rude.
@20 Zikman: it's a fairly common strategy: infiltrate slowly and blend in until critical mass is reached, then on cue, attack. I'm just blown away by the idea that bacteria are capable of this level of "strategery."
de nada
If you are well connected and rich, there is no bug that can't be killed, with phage therapy.
A smarter approach would be to work out how to make phage therapy cheap and convenient so that it can be used on a large scale.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801778.html?hpid=moreheadlines