Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to resist the effects of an antibiotic that would have originally affected the microorganism. The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing world health concerns of the 21st century. In order to combat this spread, the phenomenon must first be understood. Many studies have delved into understanding the emergence of antibiotic resistance, most of which reached the conclusion of Darwinian selection being the reason for the resistance. One of the understood contributions of antibiotic resistance are the toxin-antitoxin systems, which maintain multi-resistant plasmids. In order to combat resistance, researchers have studied cell wall hydrolases, and using them …show more content…
Microorganisms that can produce genes to combat antibiotics survive and reproduce, and those that cannot die, leaving only the resistant bacteria. Resistance is very versatile and can come in many forms, including preventing the entry of the antibiotic, exporting the antibiotic, or producing enzymes that can degrade the antibiotic. Resistance also includes the ability to modify the antibiotic target, thereby rendering it useless. An example of the inactivation of antimicrobial drugs can be seen in the resistance of bacteria with a beta lactam ring structure; these bacteria have developed enzymes such as beta-lactamases that degrade and inactivate antibiotics targeting their ring structure. Some evidence exists supporting the claim that antimicrobial substances exist naturally in the environment, contributing to resistance; however, there is more evidence supporting the claim that overuse of drugs, agriculture, and many other human uses are feeding resistance. Hence, in order to prevent antibiotic resistance, the unnecessary use and the overuse of antibiotics should be limited (Holmes et al. …show more content…
Synergy between cell wall hydrolases and antibiotics is one of the ways being looked into further by researchers. Cell wall hydrolases are enzymes that build, remodel, and degrade peptidoglycan. They play several roles in bacterial development, including cell wall metabolism, bacteriolysis, niche expansion, and eukaryotic innate immune defenses against infections. Recently, purified cell wall hydrolases have been shown to be highly effective antimicrobial agents. They exhibit quick and specific bacteriolysis, synergy with other antimicrobial agents, and anti-biofilm activity. The synergistic ability of antimicrobial cell wall hydrolases is perhaps the most useful aspect, for they can combine various strengths in order to combat infective agents and biofilm development (Wittekind et al. 18-24). Another approach to combatting antibiotic resistance is targeting the cell membrane adaptation. One of the major problems associated with antibiotic resistance is the presence of multidrug resistant bacteria. The problem arises not only with the ability of the bacteria to resist the effects of many drugs, but also with the fact that many of the available treatments for multidrug-resistant bacteria harmfully affects the human microbiota. The LiaFSR system may be the answer to the problem of MDR bacteria. This system plays a major role in in the responses against
The resistance to many antibiotics is a well-known property of bacterial biofilms. Biofilms are dense...
Ever since the discovery of antibiotics in the 1920’s, treating bacterial infections in humans, and animals alike, has emerged as a revolutionary possibility. Antibiotics are drugs that are naturally produced by bacteria or fungus to defend against other bacteria via death or inhibiting reproduction (1). Since their detection, antibiotics have been diversified into many different forms and classes which are arranged by mode of action. Glycopeptides are a class of antibiotics which are composed of glycolsylated cyclic or polycyclic nonribosomal peptides that inhibit cell wall synthesis in susceptible bacteria (2). However, it was soon discovered that the use of these antibiotic drugs would lead to antibiotic resistance. This paper will discuss the history, function, and resistance associated with vancomycin, a glycopeptide antibiotic.
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...
Constrains bacterial cell wall synthesis at a site different than beta-lactam. The Beta lactams attack the enzyme , where as Vancomycin attacks the substrate itself.
Head scientist of the antibiotic research center at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ohio, Gerry Wright, has studied the genes of 500 streptomyces strains, a type of bacteria, many of which had never previously been identified. All 500 strains held antibiotic-resistance genes and on average were resistant to 8 of 21 tested antibiotics (Sachs). With an average resistance rate as high as 67 percent in some of these streptomyces species, it is evident that antibiotic-resistance is a rising problem. Regardless of the countless studies proving antibiotic-resistance and articles about the subject, it is one the public knows little about. With such a history of antibiotic benefits, it is difficult to perceive the negative affects these drugs have. This is the main reason antibiotic studies are disregarded. If the large majority of the population continues to do little to avert antibiotic-resistance, bacteria will evolve beyond medical treatment. Actions must be taken by the community as a whole, and even further by the individual, to “reduce the spread of microbes and improve our defense against them” (Schmidt 272). Although antibiotic resistance is inevitable, humans are accelerating the natural defense of microbes through the overuse and misuse of antibiotics.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most important issues facing health care today, with wide reaching future implications if abuse continues. In the United States alone, antibiotic resistance is responsible for over two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths per year. Providers need to be judicious in the disbursement of these life saving pharmacological agents, while being informative of why antibiotics are not always the answer (Talkington, Cairns, Dolen, & Mothershed, 2014). In the case listed below, several issues need to be addressed including perception, knowledge deficit, and the caregiver’s role. This paper will focus on whether a prescription for antibiotics is appropriate and other courses of action that may be taken instead.
Acquired antimicrobial resistance generally can be ascribed to one of five mechanisms. These are production of drug-inactivating enzymes, modification of an existing target, acquisition of a target by-pass system, reduced cell permeability and drug removal from the cell. (Sefton) Also a bacterium that was once prone to an antibiotic can gain resistance through alt...
One of the many growing concerns in the world today is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance happens when the bacteria that an antibiotic is made to treat learns how to fight the treatment, and develops a strain of DNA that resists the antibiotic. The resistance is then spread from generation to generation and from one bacteria to another bacteria. The article “Antibiotic Resistance Is Worrisome, but Not Hopeless” states that the misuse and overuse of antibiotics by humans is one of the reasons for the development of resistance but not the only reason. All in all, antibiotics are important to our country's public health. Education is one way that our country could aid the misuse and overuse of antibiotics that leads to resistance. The
To get a clear insight of how pathogenic bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, one has to understand first how antibiotics work. Antibiotics are manufactured to interact with a specific target molecule produced by the bacteria. The target molecule performs protoplasm in the bacterium that is the driving cause of cellular growth and survival of the pathogen. Antibiotics hinder the growth and survival of the bacteria so that the bacteria can die. To inhibit the target’s function, an antibiotic must do three things. First, it has to reach the site of the target molecule. Second, the antibiotic has to persist at the site to have its effect. Third, the antibiotic needs to prevent the proper formation of cell walls and stop metabolic processes performed by the bacteria to prevent protein synthesis.
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.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a Gram-positive and fast-growing bacteria which inhabit upper respiratory tract in humans. Moreover, it is an aerotolerant anaerobe and usually causes respiratory diseases including pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis, peritonitis, paranasal sinusitis, septic arthritis, and osteomyelitis (Todar, 2003). According to Tettelin et al., more than 3 million of children die from meningitis or pneumonia worldwide (2001). S.pneumoniae has an enzyme known as autolysin that is responsible for disintegration and disruption of epithelial cells. Furthermore, S.pneumoniae has many essential virulence factors like capsule which is made up of polysaccharides that avoids complement C3b opsonization of cells by phagocytes. Many vaccines contain different capsular antigens which were isolated from various strains (Todar, 2003). There are plenty of S.pneumoniae strains that developed resistance to most popular antibiotics like macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and penicillin since 1990 (Tettelin et al., 2001). Antibiotic resistance was developed by the gene mutation and selection processes that, as a consequence, lead to the formation of penicillin-binding proteins, etc. (Todar, 2003).
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.
Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die. On the other hand, cells that have some resistance from the start or acquire it later may survive. At the same time, when antibiotics attack disease-causing bacteria, they also attack benign bacteria. This process eliminates drug-susceptible bacteria and favors bacteria that are resistant. Two things happen, populations of non-resistant and harmless bacteria are diminished, and because of the reduction of competition from these harmless and/or susceptible bacteria, resistant forms of disease-causing bacteria proliferate. As the resistant forms of the bacteria proliferate, there is more opportunity for genetic or chromosomal mutation (spontaneous DNA mutation (1)) or transformation, that comes about either through a form of microbial sex (1) or through the transference of plasmids, small circles of DNA (1), which allow bacteria to interchange genes with ease. Sometimes genes can also be t...
It is estimated that over one-half of the antibiotics in the U.S. are used in food animal production. The overuse of antimicrobials in food animal production is an under-appreciated problem. In both human and veterinary medicine, the risk of developing resistance rises each time bacteria are exposed to antimicrobials. Resistance opens the door to treatment failure for even the most common pathogens and leads to an increasing number of infections. The mounting evidence of the relationship between antimicrobial use in animal husbandry and the increase in bacterial resistance in humans has prompted several reviews of agricultural practices by scientific authorities in a number of countries, including the US.
The most effective way to combat pathogenic bacteria which invade the body is the use of antibiotics. Overexposure to antibiotics can easily lead to resistant strains of bacteria. Resistance is dangerous because bacteria can easily spread from person to person. Simple methods for preventing excessive bacterial spread are often overlooked. Not all preventative measures are even adequate. Doctors and patients often use antibiotics unnecessarily or incorrectly, leading to greater resistance. Antibiotics are used heavily in livestock and this excessive antibiotic use can create resistant bacteria and transfer them to humans. In order to reduce resistant bacteria,