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Researchers Find "Achilles Heel" of Drug Resistant Bacteria

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-your-medicine dept.

Rambo Tribble writes Researchers in Britain are reporting that they have found a way to prevent bacteria from forming the "wall" that prevents antibiotics from attacking them. “It is a very significant breakthrough,” said Professor Changjiang Dong, from the University of East Anglia's (UAE) Norwich Medical School. “This is really important because drug-resistant bacteria is a global health problem. Many current antibiotics are becoming useless, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Many bacteria build up an outer defence which is important for their survival and drug resistance. We have found a way to stop that happening," he added. This research provides the platform for urgently-needed new generation drugs.

25 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. e. coli and salmonella? by bigfinger76 · · Score: 2

    E. Coli and salmonella are not caused by the same "bug".

    1. Re:e. coli and salmonella? by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 5, Informative

      They are talking about the class of bacteria that can form the barrier they mention. That is, "Gram-negative bacteria" which includes "Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella, Shigella, and other Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, Moraxella, Helicobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Bdellovibrio, acetic acid bacteria, Legionella etc.". (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    2. Re:e. coli and salmonella? by El+Puerco+Loco · · Score: 2

      The article also uses MRSA, which is gram positive, as their prime example of resistant bacteria.

    3. Re:e. coli and salmonella? by MrBingoBoingo · · Score: 5, Informative

      The mention of MRSA in the article was probably erroneous and sloppy reporting. Gram Negative bacteria tend to resist chemotherapy due to robust cell walls. Gram Positive bacteria like MRSA, VRSA, VRE, et al... resist drug therapy by other means. This covers nothing of the most concerning drug resistant bacteria, but merely offers a way to make some bacteria vulnerable to drugs that they were not vulnerable to before.

    4. Re:e. coli and salmonella? by dfm3 · · Score: 5, Informative

      As a microbiologist, I agree that the Telegraph article is rife with errors. The original article is paywalled, but from the abstract it sounds as if the researchers described a mechanism by which lipopolysaccharide, a component of the gram-negative cell wall which provides some degree of antibiotic resistance, is exported from the cell. I understand Dong, et al to be suggesting that a compound which prevents proper transport of LPS could be used synergistically with another drug which would otherwise be blocked from entry into the cell by LPS.

      Further, the use of the term "immunity" to describe antibiotic resistance is a pet peeve of mine, as these terms do not mean the same thing!

    5. Re:e. coli and salmonella? by doggo · · Score: 2

      Sometimes we have to go with the headline we have, not the headline we want.

  2. HOPE to exploit it by kae77 · · Score: 4, Informative

    From TFA ... researchers have discovered what causes anti-biotic resistance, and HOPE to use that to discover how to stop them from becoming resistant.

    The summary suggests that they already have. The summary will be perfect in "a few years time" when the researchers hope to have the solution.

    1. Re:HOPE to exploit it by Bob_Who · · Score: 2

      The summary will be perfect in "a few years time" when the researchers hope to have the solution.

      So this is less a news story and more a fund raising effort. That rings true to me. I think we're seeing a lot more advertisement built right into the programming these days... What a novel idea: sell a lot of snake oil to sick people.

    2. Re:HOPE to exploit it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well they did make a discovery. What do you suggest? That science not raise funds for continued research? Nothing was mentioned in the article to send them money btw. Money is needed for science, those who make advances should get it.

  3. What's with the quotes around "gram-negative?" by El+Puerco+Loco · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does this only work on bacteria that are pretending to be gram-negative? It's like the menu from the pizza place in my neighborhood that uses quotes around words like "chicken." What are they really serving?

    1. Re:What's with the quotes around "gram-negative?" by MrBingoBoingo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Seems to only work on bacterial that are only inherently resistant to some antibiotics to because they are gram negative, so some bacterial that were hard to kill because they were gram negative get easier. The rest stay hard targets.

  4. Easier by Hamsterdan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Stop disinfecting and over-cleaning everything. Remove the Purell crap. Let kids eat dirt.

    1- It will force people to build their immune system (I'm not always sick like younger generations)
    2- If you stop killing 99.999% of all bacteria, it will put an end to super-bacteria (the 0.0001% that survive and reproduce)

    I *never* use any kind of medicine (unless I have no choice), I never use band aids on nicks and scratches (don't disinfect them either). I have no food intolerance, food allergies or other weird ailment.

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    1. Re:Easier by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Informative

      Stop disinfecting and over-cleaning everything. Remove the Purell crap

      Purell is alcohol based (good ole' ethanol). That has nothing to do with antibiotics and the antibiotic resistant bacteria in TFA.

    2. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I never use band aids on nicks and scratches (don't disinfect them either)

      I didn't once, and I ended up in hospital on a drip with an infection in my finger.

      I'm not always sick like so many others, either.

      Random chance has a bit to do with it.

    3. Re:Easier by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, not everything is practical to develop resistance to. I mean, you're not going to have bacteria developing resistance to, say, a flame thrower ;) Even yeast, who make the stuff, get killed by alcohol when it's in too strong of a concentration. Don't get me wrong, there are alcohol-resistant bacteria. But we're not talking about a surface protein difference here or anything, we're talking "entirely spored off to stop the alcohol from dissolving the cell membrane". To resist alcohol the cell has to be so encased that it can't do anything else but wait for the alcohol to go away. And it has to be so encased at the time of exposure, not afterwards.

      Alcohol-resistant species, most notably Clostridium, can be a problem for people who are sterilizing equipment. But these aren't species that developed alcohol resistance in response to doctors, these are naturally spore-forming species. Alcohol is such a brute force attack, a simple tweak to a cell just doesn't cut it. And alcohol has been a threat to microbes for a long, long time. And even if some species did develop an alcohol resistance and began to pose a threat, that would only have significance to people sterilizing equipment / surfaces. It wouldn't make a difference in terms of how to treat an infection once its in the body; it's not like you're not going to replace your blood with 90% isopropyl alcohol. ;)

      --
      "Close the door! What, were you born in a barn?" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
    4. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's a reason average life expectancy used to be 35 years.

    5. Re:Easier by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Stop disinfecting and over-cleaning everything. Remove the Purell crap. Let kids eat dirt.

      1- It will force people to build their immune system (I'm not always sick like younger generations)
      2- If you stop killing 99.999% of all bacteria, it will put an end to super-bacteria (the 0.0001% that survive and reproduce)

      I *never* use any kind of medicine (unless I have no choice), I never use band aids on nicks and scratches (don't disinfect them either). I have no food intolerance, food allergies or other weird ailment.

      Not to burst your bubble, and not really saying these are bad ideas, I infact condone this. Buuut... killing bacteria, being cleanly does not create drug-resistant bacteria. People not finishing their meds after they feel better is what creates nasty bugs, along with a good dose of over prescribing antibiotics. But washing your hands with a disinfectant has little to nothing to do with this problem. They're not becoming resistant to our germ killing soaps and lotions... it's the medications once the bugs get inside you that they're getting good at protecting themselves against.

    6. Re:Easier by k8to · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm a medical minimalist, but refusing to sterilize cuts is kind of stupid.

      Your immune system doesn't need a significant exposure to antigens to trigger the normal hypothalamus reactions and induce immune-system learning and memory reactions. Meanwhile your immune system isn't guaranteed to win arbitrary scale battles and you don't really know what was on whatever cut you. It's not like really unfortunate bacteria are all that rare.

      You should also realize that you get away with this because you live in a relatively low-bacteria environment, such as an arid or temperate one. By your logic you should move to the tropics because you'll get far more exposure to diseases. Only there refusing to sterelize cuts will lead to some really bad situations.

      --
      -josh
    7. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're missing the really troublesome one: low-level antibiotic use in livestock. As a society, it's cheaper to not treat sick animals. Just keep them out of human food, turn them into pet food. Cats and dogs are much more capable of dealing with the meat of sick animals. That's a predator thing, their predecessors have been hunting sick animals for millions of years. of course, what's profitable to society isn't always profitable to farmers. They'll make more money by using antibiotics and butchering the somewhat sick cows.

  5. Re:UEA not UAE by Barsteward · · Score: 2

    ok.. Pedantic... :o)

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  6. Antibiotic resistance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    One of the main mechanisms for antibiotic resistance is efflux pumping. Drug makes it across the membrane and then is pumped out before it can reach a lethal concentration. If you can attack the cell from outside then you can sidestep this mechanism.

    There are a natural class of antimicrobials called Protegrins that usually insert into the membrane from outside and combine to form a pore, spilling the cell contents. If you modify these you can make them lethal without forming a pore and in this state the protein they bind to (with low nanomolar affinity) is LptD (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20167788) - one of the protein structures discussed. With a structure of the target there is a bit more information to guide development of these.

  7. The Reason... by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The reason average life expectancy has more than doubled in a century or two is that infant mortality has been reduced, bringing the average up.

    There is not so much difference in survival expectancy once on is an adult.

    1. Re:The Reason... by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, don't think so. I suggest this chart: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/...

      The age of mortality for non-infants (those living past age 10) has increased by 20-25 years, a 50% increase in life expectancy, in the past century. Even if you look at "adults", or those who make it to age 20, there is still a 17-23 year increase. Again, a 50% increase in longevity for adults.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  8. I told them by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2

    I told them to dip the bacteria in Iron Maiden, and not Styx. The heel vulerability was totally preventable.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  9. Re:Achilles Heel by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 2

    I read that as enchanted skin, which would have been entirely appropriate for Achilles, as well. And that's what we don't have when we use a bunch of funky cleaners on our skin, removing its natural acidity. Even our washing habits impinge on our body's ability to protect itself.

    I rather deal with bacteria than with rancid-smelly people. YMMV :)