Antibiotics have been observed to be unable to adapt to bacteria that has acquired resistant genes. As a result, new types of antibiotics must be created constantly but eventually those will become nonfunctional as well. On the other hand, bacteriophages evolve alongside the bacteria they attack due to the manner in which they destroy them. In the event of new bacterial strains, the bacteriophage will adapt to deal with that issue. (Pirisi, 2000) This rules out the hindrance caused by the development of resistance and the polyclonal nature of infectious diseases. With more research and trials, bacteriophage therapy has the capabilities to surpass antibiotics as a more efficient and reliable form of treatment for bacterial infections.
A Brief History of Bacteriophage Therapy
The history of the discovery of bacteriophages like many things is steeped in controversy over who found it first. Generally, it is accepted that British bacteriologist Ernest Hanbury Hankin was one of the first to identify the virus. In British India and many other ancient civilizations, it was believed that some rivers bore the ability to miraculously heal diseases--notoriously, leprosy. In 1896, Hankin identified antibacterial activity against Vibrio cholerae (cholera) in the Ganges and Jumna rivers. He found through his study of the mysterious substance only that it was antibacterial, was able to pass through thin porcelain filters, was heat labile (meaning it could be changed or destroyed at high temperatures), and was the primary reason that cholera epidemics had been limited in that region. (Adhya & Merril, 2006) Nearly two decades later, in 1915, another British bacteriologist named Frederick Twort also identified bacteriophage in his research. Twort...
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...ol, M.T. (2010 January 11) Phage therapy for plant disease control. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. (1) pp 48-57.
Gill J.J., & Hyman P. (2010) Phage choice, isolation, and preparation for phage therapy.
Curr Pharm Biotechnol.(1):pp 2-14.
Goodridge, L.D. (2010 January 11) Designing phage therapeutics. Curr Pharm Biotechnol.1 (1):pp 15-27.
Budynek, P., & Dabrowska, K., & Figura, G. (2010 May 25) Bacteriophage T4: molecular aspects of bacterial cell infection and the role of capsid proteins. Postepy Hig Med Dosw 64:pp 251-61.
Alavidze, Z., Morris, J.G., & Sulakvelidze, A. (2001 March) Antimicrobial Agents. Chemotherapy. 45 (3) pp. 649-659
Potera, C. (2013 August) Germ warfare? Strategies for reducing the spread of antibiotic resistance. Environmental Health Perspective.(8):A255. doi:10.1289/ehp.121-a255.
Sulakvelidze, A. (2011 January) Bacteriophage.
Therefore, local communities must take actions regarding antibiotic-resistance, whether they are awareness programs or state and nationally regulated laws. The act of hindering antibiotic-resistance development is also an individual commitment. People must understand the effects of excess antibiotics and commit to making a difference. These acts may be as simple as not demanding unnecessary antibiotics and finish the entire course when antibiotics are prescribed. Regardless to the natural evolution of bacteria, society must delay the development of antibiotic-resistance within bacteria with humanity has hastened
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are created when mutations in the pathogen's genetic code occurs, changing the protein in the bacteria that the antibiotics normally go after into a shape that the antibiotic can not recognize. The average bacteria divides every twenty minutes, so if a contaminated spot has one single bacteria in the morning, there could be trillions on that same spot at the end of the day. That means that when counting all the possibilities of mutations, the amount of mutated offspring that the bacteria might have formed during those replications could be as high as in the millions. Fortunately though, this does not happen so frequently that it is normally an issue. The amount of non-mutated bacteria vastly outnumbers the mutated ones and many of the mutations occurring in the bacteria usually have either a harmful effect, or not effect at all on its function. That means that the pathogen is still relatively less harmful than it c...
Rifkind, David, and Geraldine L. Freeman. The Nobel Prize Winning Discoveries in Infectious Diseases. London: Elsevier/Academic, 2005.
Stewart, Philip S, (2001) states that antibiotics are elements that are used to kill, or hinder the multiplication and growth of organisms. Especially, these antibiotics are meant to control fungi and bacteria. In this case, the antibiotics that are used in killing bacteria are referred to as bactericidal, and the ones that are used to prevent the multiplication process are bacteriostatic. The primary microbes for antibiotics are bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms are crucial to facilitate the secretion of substances that kill harmful bacteria which confer competition for the limited available nutrients (Southern, P. J., &Berg, 1981).
The most intriguing article within the stimulating documents was William Stearns Davis’ “The Life of a Peasant” (Davis, 1922). Which offers an unaltered view of the lives of peasants in the middle ages. In his article, Davis introduces the idea of deadly bacteria through a description of the Black Plague, a disease caused by the bacterium named Yersinia Pestis. The Black Plague devastated the kingdoms of the middle ages. Yersinia Pestis was able to do this as at the time of its major outbreak, poor hygiene was commonplace, and antibiotics were non-existent. The question that stood out from the article was “To what extent, would it be possible for superbugs to create an environment today absent of effective antibiotics?”
“But how did it come to this?” you’re probably asking yourself. Humans may have been studying antibiotics, but so were bacteria – and they’ve b...
Bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics is a major problem not only for the United States, but worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) the cause is related to “widespread overuse, as well as inappropriate use, of antibiotics that is fueling antibiotic resistance”. According to World Health Organization (2013) resistance is a global concern for several reasons; it impedes the control of infectious diseases, increases healthcare costs, and the death rate for patients with resistant bacterial infections is twice of those with non-resistant bacterial infections.
Compounding all of these solutions, the pharmaceutical industry needs to conduct extensive research on developing new antibiotics for various pathogenic bacteria by studying the bacterial structure. This will help scientists to formulate ways of counteracting the functions of the various constituents of bacteria.
Okeke, I. and Edelman, R, (2001). Dissemination of Antibiotic - Resistant Bacteria across Geographic Borders. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2001; 33:364-9.
Antibiotic resistance evolves naturally through natural selection via random mutation, but it could also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. The antibiotic action is an environmental pressure; those bacteria which have a mutation allowing them to survive will live on to reproduce. They will then pass this trait to their offspring, which will be a fully resistant generation. Studies at the Finnish Academy found that using one type of antibiotic increases the resistance of bacteria to other types of antibiotics as well. Antibiotics do not work against illnesses t...
Antibiotics have been vital tools in the fight against bacterial infections, however their effectiveness has waned in recent times due to the advent of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. According to a review by P, the uses of antibiotics, as well as influences from the environment have allowed such bacterial strains to respond to changes in their environment rapidly, and so develop resistance. This acquired ability can have serious and broad implications in the medical field, evident in a study by O into the resistance of intestinal Staphylococcus aureus.
1) Lewis, Ricki, “The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections”. Food and Drug Administration Publication. http://ww.fda.gov/fdac/features/795_antibio.html September, 1995.
At his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1945, Alexander Fleming warned against the misuse of antibiotics and the fact that by doing this, one allows the bacteria to ‘become educated’ and therefore become resistant to the antibiotic. It is believed that the first cases of antibiotic resistance were shortly after this speech. (Fleming, 1945)
The main goal of this experiment was to determine if DNA or proteins within bacteriophages were the hereditary material that entered a bacterial cell to direct the assembly of new viruses. This experiment followed in its predecessor’s footsteps and used tools developed in the field of microbiology for the observation of cellular behavior. The researchers split their main objective into two experiments. In one experiment researchers took a bacteriophage encoded with the element P, which is prominent in DNA but not proteins, and in the other experiment researchers used the bacteriophages(phages) holding the element S, which exists in proteins but not DNA. The mixtures were then allowed to infect bacteria. Researchers then placed the phage and bacteria mixture in a blender in order to remove the viruses from the bacterial cells. Researchers then placed the mixture in a centrifuge, forcing the bacterial cells to the bottom of the tube, separating the bacteria from the rest of the material. Hershel and Chase found that the supernatant fluid, liquid that housed the lighter part of the viruses that did not infect bacteria, held a majority of the P element initially introduced in the experiment. The S element that indicated the singular presence of DNA, was found to be transferred into the bacteria. The results from this experiment indicated that DNA