How can bacteria outsmart medicine

Ever since we developed antibiotics, we have used them to treat a wide variety of diseases. But, every time we use an antibiotic, we give bacteria a chance to get ahead. Think about it like combat: every time we use a weapon, that is a chance for the enemy to observe the weapon and decide how best to counter-act it next time [15]. Unfortunately, bacteria are much better and faster at evolving than we are at finding and inventing new antibiotics.

The problems with antibiotic use are compounded when we use them for the wrong situations for more detail, refer to [15]. Problematic behaviors include not taking the full dose of the antibiotics, saving leftover antibiotics for re-use, and sharing antibiotics with friends and family. Another misuse is when antibiotics are used for the wrong disease. Antibiotics are meant to treat bacteria, but there are many non-bacterial illnesses like the common cold, to flu, to chicken pox, against which antibiotics are useless.

Such antibiotic misuse is even more serious because there are always Staph and other bacteria lurking in our bodies and surroundings. Thus, seemingly minor behaviors can add up to the evolution of superbugs like MRSA, among others. Besides giving harmful bacteria a head start, using antibiotics also runs the risk of damaging our allies—the bacteria in our microbiomes. There are many benefits of the microbiome, including prevention of nasal Staph infections [9].

In a healthy person, the microbiome occupies all the space in the nose, leaving Staph no room to take up residence [9]. For detailed discussion of the microbiome, refer to 10].

Thus, when we take antibiotics, we may not just be targeting the bad guys. Antibiotic medications can also wipe out the friendly bacteria that help make us healthy and prevent bacteria like MRSA from taking root. Between and , the CDC reported a decline in the number of MRSA illnesses and deaths, an improvement largely attributed to improved infection control [11].

This represents a significant step forward and demonstrates that we have made, and can continue to make, strides against MRSA and other antibiotic resistant bacteria. To this end, the CDC provides suggestions to patients on how to combat antibiotic resistance: take antibiotics only when doctors specifically say that they are necessary; follow prescriptions exactly, without skipping doses or stopping early; do not share antibiotics or save them for later [for full list of suggestions, refer to 12].

Antibiotic resistance is a real health challenge in the modern world. As we look to the road ahead, more responsible and careful use of antibiotics may be one of the factors that give us back the advantage in our race against the tiny, tenacious bacteria than endanger our health. It could be incorporated in a hospital setting, a clinic setting, or even the home. For the first part of the grant, Shokuhfar plans to experiment with incorporating the nanomaterial into material to prevent infections.

If her work is successful, she would then seek a partnership with a company already producing an antibacterial product to see if the nanomaterial could be incorporated into its manufacturing process. Contact UIC News contributor uictoday uic. Updated: Nov 11, at PM. For every life-saving antibiotic introduced, bacteria have developed varying levels of resistance, replicating and adapting faster than human cells.

The co-founder of the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery CO-ADD said global cooperation and compounds containing metals could hold the key to the discovery of the next generation of antibiotics to tackle superbugs. It crowd-sources molecules from academic research groups around the world in order to screen them for antimicrobial activity. To date, over , diverse compounds from more than academic groups in 47 countries have been received.

He said IMB researchers had identified that compounds in the CO-ADD collection containing metals such as silver, manganese, zinc, ruthenium and iridium had a much greater chance of killing bacteria or fungi than more traditional compounds without a metal component.

Importantly, many of these metal compounds were selective at killing the microorganisms, but not human cells.