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Can We Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria With Non-Antibiotic Drugs? (economist.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the going-viral dept.

Slashdot reader Bruce66423 shares what researchers learned by studying the effect of drugs on bacteria in the gut: The research reveals that it's not just antibiotics that have the effect of causing resistance to antibiotics. "Of the drugs in the study, 156 were antibacterials (144 antibiotics and 12 antiseptics). But a further 835, such as painkillers and blood-pressure pills, were not intended to harm bacteria. Yet almost a quarter (203) did....

"However, Dr Maier's study also brings some good news for the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Some strains she looked at which were resistant to antibiotics nevertheless succumbed to one or more of the non-antibiotic drugs thrown at them. This could be a starting point for the development of new antimicrobial agents which would eliminate bacteria that have proved intractable to other means."
Every drug the researchers tested has already been approved for human use -- which means they could all eventually be used as a second wave of antibiotics.

62 comments

  1. To be fair... by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not that the antidepressants directly harm bacteria. It's just it makes a lot of depressed bacteria feel capable enough to go ahead and commit suicide.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    1. Re:To be fair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder how Trump is going to fight bacteria in prison though?

    2. Re:To be fair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You misspelled Hillary.

  2. No by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Can We Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria With Non-Antibiotic Drugs?

    You might be able to fight antibiotic resistant ones, though.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:No by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the summary and particularly the title are pretty misleading here.

      What the research shows is that non-antimicrobial drugs contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance. The bit about using these drugs as starting points for developing novel antimicrobials is an idea for further research.

      This is a typical news media practice: give what appears to be good news equal weight to the bad news, thus producing "balance". As a result people come away with the wrong impression.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At the end of the day, the standard practice of routinely blanketing factory farm animals with antibiotics will continue unabated.

      Nothing will be done to prevent the pandemic. We are creating this problem with your eyes wide open, all in the name of abundant, cheap dinner meat.

  3. Painkillers kill bacteria? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There goes the excuse that pain medicine only masks the problem. Legalize all drugs. We users know more than the doctors.

    1. Re:Painkillers kill bacteria? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet how many tens of thousands of people are dying each year from drug overdoses?

      We had a system like that in the past, there's a reason why we no longer do.

    2. Re:Painkillers kill bacteria? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The reason we no longer have the old system is that a good country has been defeated by self-righteous statists.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    3. Re:Painkillers kill bacteria? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Legalize drugs so ppl know the dosage they are administering. If they OD, they wanted to and that says a lot about the horrible nightmare of neoliberalism which they want to escape.

  4. Especially the fraudulent ones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look up Linus Pauling's confused ranting about Vitamin C as the cure for everything. See https://www.quackwatch.org/01Q... .

  5. "killing bacteria without antibiotics" by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    reminded me of this clip:

    https://youtu.be/VDJehCXMKwI?t...

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  6. We can develop new antibiotics... by Hrrrg · · Score: 1

    It would be great if some drugs we already have could also fight infections. However, we can also develop new antibiotics. We have genetic and molecular biology tools that are light years ahead of what was available when the current crop of antibiotics was developed. Every time a protein mutates so that an antibiotic no longer binds to it, we could develop a new antibiotic that binds to the new protein. This war will never be won, but we don't have to lose it either. All that is lacking is the financial incentive to develop these medications. Because the private sector won't do it, it seems to be that it should become the mission of a government agency such as the NIH.

    1. Re:We can develop new antibiotics... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      If developing antibiotics would be so easy we had not a million death per year world wide to antibiotic resistent bacteria.

      Actually: we don't know at all how antibiotics work, we only have like 3 classes of antibiotica, and in each class less than a hand full of substances. Bottom line we have around 20 antibiotics at the moment. And thats it!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:We can develop new antibiotics... by muridae · · Score: 1

      From that link:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      6 major classes of antibiotics in this group alone. Unless you are really picky and count Gentamicin and Doxycycline in the same class; having had both the difference is noticeable and cross-resistance is not too high.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Five or more classes, depending on how you divide things up. Sure, beta-lactams cover a huge range, but the cross resistance between Penams and Cephalosporin/Cephamycin is usually pretty low. Then the big guns like Vancomycin in a class of it's own, and the carbapenems somewhere in-between.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Several more classes here. The whole Sulpha family of antibiotics, the whole quinolone group (maybe there is a split between the fluoro- and the non-fluoro-, I haven't had much experience with the non-fluoro group), the two nitro: furan and imidazole, and the rifamycin family.

      All said, there are a lot more drugs out there. Many aren't used because of the side-effects or because they are held back for last resort use. There is also the massive problem of penicillin and sulpha allergies, though some studies have shown that many cases of childhood allergic response to penicillin is a one-time thing and the drugs can be useful later in life. The whole Oxazolidinone family is full of active research, the problems with Linezolid is that it is a strong MAOI; hugh number of side effects and interactions with other drugs, and foods. Wiki sites that it is popular now because patients can be switched from IV to oral sooner, since Linezolid is available in an oral form; but that pill form was very expensive ten years ago when I had to pay $1000 for two 500mg pills, which made the stuff something like 18 times the cost of gold or somewhere near the by-weight-cost of inkjet ink.
      And then there is the 5th generation cephalosporin drugs, a few being useful against pseudomonas and klebsiella (notoriously limited in the drugs they even respond to) as well as staph A. even when it is MRSA.

      So, there is a lot of cutting edge research and new drugs out there. Unfortunately, not all of them are available in the USA right now.

  7. Household Bleach and Ammonia by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 0

    Both Household Bleach and Ammonia kill 99.9999% of all bacteria. If you drink a cup of bleach with breakfast, instead of Orange Juice, and a cup of Ammonia before going to bed at night, you won't have to worry about bacteria in no time at all.

    This "cure" is 100% effective in stopping bacteria from harming or killing you. Many celebrities agree!

    You can even use the Orange or Lemon flavored variety! Delicious!

    1. Re: Household Bleach and Ammonia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a strain of resistant to bleach parasites - shitty smelly H1B hindu-chimps.

  8. Phages by Archtech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Bacteriophages are a good partial answer. Viruses that prey on and destroy specific bacteria, they have some great advantages along with their limitations.

    On the plus side, they are tailored for one specific strain of bacterium and kill those alone. What's more, they usually kill virtually all of them. Then the viruses have nothing to attack, and go dormant. There is no question - as far as I know, so far - of bacteria developing resistance. The phage's attack is extremely basic - rather like an anti-tank shot. They just bore into the bacterium, commandeer its DNA and start churning out more phages.

    Also, the specificity means that a phage is extremely focused in its effects. None of the huge overkill of antibiotics, which - as their name implies - are pretty hostile to all living material.

    The downside is significant, but manageable. Each phage kills only one type of bacterium, so you need to create a library of phages. An institute in Tbilisi, Georgia had such a library in Soviet times; I don't know how much of its stock has survived. It could be built up again at fairly low cost.

    Since the bacteria against which antibiotics fail are quite few in number so far, it should be feasible to develop phages fast enough to keep up with them.

    Perhaps the biggest problem lies in the absence of vast undeserved profits. That's the main reason why the Western world went overboard on antibiotics in the first place, leading to undeserved neglect of other antibacterial techniques.

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    1. Re: Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ^This. Phages are the answer, and do work successfully. Problem is, they donâ(TM)t manufacture well like a pill would. They have to be cultivated.

      With some DNA analysis, and custom programming via CRISPR, we can create synthetic custom phages for each bacteria strain. Just hopefully some asshole doesnâ(TM)t create one that wipes out humanity in the process. *drops vial* Oops!

    2. Re:Phages by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Perhaps the biggest problem lies in the absence of vast undeserved profits. That's the main reason why the Western world went overboard on antibiotics in the first place,

      No that's utter bullshit. The reason we went nuts on them is they're extremely effective and have saved vast numbers of lives. They over took phage therapy because thye were much more reliable. The reason we haven't gone wholesale on bacteriophages is a reason you already identified:

      Also, the specificity means that a phage is extremely focused in its effects. None of the huge overkill of antibiotics, which - as their name implies - are pretty hostile to all living material. The downside is significant, but manageable. Each phage kills only one type of bacterium, so you need to create a library of phages.

      That's the thing, really, and it has more downsides than you realise.

      In order to use phages you need to be able to easily identify the infecting bacteria. Doing that on the scale at which infections are treated is a vast undertaking. It's one which can ultimately be fixed with technology, but being able to do it rapidly and effectively is only currently available for a few bacteria. Then you need huge stocks because you need a different phage for each bacteria, also a large undertaking.

      And finally, antibiotics are often used prior to any specific evidence of an infection after surgery or a bite with a high likelihood of infection. Those are much harder cases to deal with for phage therapy.

      IOW this isn' some dumbbass western consipracy.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re: Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bacteria become resistant to phages pretty quicky as well. I donâ(TM)t understand why microbes are seen as statics ents, like bricks, when they are alive and therefore subject to evolution.

      Microbes divide pretty fast, so evolution is pretty fast on them. Thereâ(TM)s no such thing as evolution-proof.

    4. Re: Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very true. However, by isolating and going after a common denominator and leveraging that to extend the timeline of effectiveness, all the better. Until the next time evolution throws us off. But yes, it is an arms race.

    5. Re:Phages by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      With western world you mean the USA.
      In Europe we have strict laws how to handle antibiotics, e.g. you can not by them in a drug store.
      On the other hand people are stupid, because they can not buy them, they think it is smart to only use half the package and keep the rest in reserve for "self treatment".
      The answer to that is now antibiotics with depot effect, you only get 3 pills, to take one each day. The effect of the pills lasts for 8 - 10 days.
      But likely just a matter of time till people again only take one pill and "safe" the others for "emergencies".

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:Phages by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      In order to use phages you need to be able to easily identify the infecting bacteria.
      Which is actually super easy ...

      IOW this isn' some dumbbass western consipracy.
      No, it is dumbass western lazyness ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    7. Re:Phages by mikael · · Score: 1

      "And finally, antibiotics are often used prior to any specific evidence of an infection after surgery or a bite with a high likelihood of infection. Those are much harder cases to deal with for phage therapy."

      There is another problem. The agricultural industry have grown used to feeding livestock with antibiotics because it makes the animals grow larger and fetch a better price at the market. Then doctors prescribe people antibiotics on the chance that a sore throat might be an infection. Then some patients don't complete their course of antibiotics and the country ends up with antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    8. Re: Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but people like you would be the first people to complain loudly to the government if you get sick from eating meat. You are also not going to pay any more for your meat than you absolutely have to. So the farmers are stuck feeding their cows massive quantities of antibiotics because you want to have disease free meat really cheap. You are the problem.

    9. Re:Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In order to use phages you need to be able to easily identify the infecting bacteria.
      Which is actually super easy ...

      How's that then? I know plenty of times when I've been sick, I go to a doctor, and several days of being rather sick will pass by before they can identify the precise cause in a cost-effective way, if they even bother. And even if they knew that something was a staph infection, say, there are many different species of staph bacteria.

    10. Re:Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If targeting is a problem, why not combine various phages in a single dose? A concoction for when a patient has symptoms of lung infection X, Y, or Z; another for when it's obviously some sort of strep etc.

      Doctors prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics even when they have a good idea of what's causing the illness. If we can reduce the use of such drugs even further, we might slow the progress of drug resistance in bacteria.

    11. Re:Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The doctors are thinking about cost-effectiveness and profit instead of medicine. They have their mind on their money and their money on their mind. If they profit more by assigning blunt antibacterial instruments, then that is the good and moral thing to do. If phage therapy was so good it would make them more money. Meanwhile business-as-usual and business is looking good. No hurry on the phage front is necessary, because profits are being made today off old therapies ...

      Thus does neoliberalism introduce knowledge throttling, perverse incentives, and moral hazards into medicine.

    12. Re:Phages by ch0knuti · · Score: 1

      You are forgetting the medium in which they will have to act. We are not talking about bacteria on a Petri dish but bacteria that is in a human body, which has an immune system that does not take kindly to foreign objects, beneficial or not. So for these custom bacteriophages to work they will have to kill their targets faster than the immune system would kill them. Kind of reduces their effectiveness IMHO.

    13. Re: Phages by Archtech · · Score: 1

      You are also not going to pay any more for your meat than you absolutely have to.

      Why do people like you always assume that they have this superhuman power of knowing what others think?

      As it happens I, for one, consider healthy nourishing food one of the most important and valuable items I buy. Not only am I "willing" to pay more for my meat "than I absolutely have to"; I insist on doing so.

      Obviously, healthy beef, mutton and venison from well-treated, grass-fed animals kept out of doors in a pleasant natural habitat costs much more than meat from wretched beasts huddled indoors, never seeing the sun, standing all day (and night) in pools of their own manure, and fed on ghastly concoctions of artificial "feed".

      Obviously, too, those unhealthy beasts are going to succumb like flies to infection unless they are stuffed with antibiotics. Whereas it's very unwise to eat any meat from an animal that has been given antibiotics even once. (Or fed on trash like soya, ground-up sea-bottom creatures, and vile polyunsaturated oils).

      It may be an American trait to think of food as fungible. (So many calories, so many dollars). That is how nutrition science began in the 18th century, when the laws of thermodynamics had just been discovered and employers were keen to find the cheapest diet that would give their workers enough energy to get their tasks done. (Sugar was thought the best solution).

      Now that more is known about the history of nutrition, what our ancestors ate, and the biochemistry of metabolism at the cellular level, it is obvious that food is absolutely not fungible. And only someone who is very poor indeed, or very unwise indeed, seeks the very cheapest foods.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    14. Re:Phages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In order to use phages you need to be able to easily identify the infecting bacteria.
      Which is actually super easy ...

      Bullshit! This stupid claim just shows that you have no idea of what you are talking about.

      Identifying the DNA of a microorganism is not easy, cheap or fast. It is doable, but that is something entirely different. And for medical treatment, the first three factors are really what counts. We need to be able to treat people without too complex processes, without it costing too much and do it before the ailment becomes worse.

      It saddens me that fools read about scientific breakthroughs and believe that a single finding now means that we have a cheap and effective way to do everything in that field.

  9. Haha but this whole question is nonsense by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An "antibiotic" is "a medicine that inhibits the growth of or destroys microorganisms".

    So if it inhibits or destroys bacteria, it's an antibiotic, whether you traditionally think of it as one or not.

    A better article title would have been something like: "Some existing medicines used for other conditions are found to act as antibiotics". Boring but less misleading.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:Haha but this whole question is nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Linguistically, ok, but not scientifically.

      And that's important -- antibiotics act on specific mechanisms to inhibit bacteria... otherwise you might say that perhaps antibiotics affect viruses...

  10. Re: Paul Ryan for PRISONER GENERAL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She's Slovenian and if she's a plant, I, for one, welcome our flora-supermodel overlords... Trump is a fucking moron for cheating on her in the first place, if nothing else were true. (but it all is)

    Sadly I doubt she'll visit him at Leavenworth. She'll be too busy spending her divorce settlement, lol.

  11. Just say no to drugs... by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    I'm not against antibiotics (anti-antibiotic) but there are other ways of killing off bacteria. One we use on our farm is heat.

    We raise pigs out on pastureâ and as such I tend toward avoiding antibiotics unless proscribed by a vet to cure a particular problem in a particular pig. Since a vet an a course of antibiotics costs so much that virtually never happens.

    All bacteria are susceptible to overheating. Death by hot tub we call it. The trick is that animals, like you and I as well as pigs, are also killed by overheating. But, there is a zone where you can turn the tide of the war between the animal's immune system and the invaders by applying heat. With pigs that are small enough we literally hot tub them, that is to say in a bucket of warm water carefully monitoring them and saving their lives without resorting to drugs.

    I use the same sort of thing on myself for cuts and it is ver effective.

    This is not to say I won't go to the doctor and get antibiotics as needed, just that there are alternatives to drugs. More thought needs to be put into that.

    âYes, pigs do eat grass but pasture is also a lot of other forages like clovers, etc. People all too often get stuck on "pigs aren't cows and can't eat grass" which is incorrect.

    1. Re:Just say no to drugs... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's called a fever. Works sometimes. It's been tried in humans and has had limited efficacy.

      But a reasonable point is not to treat a fever unless the symptoms of the fever are really bothersome. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Just say no to drugs... by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      Yes, I'm well aware of what it is called. The difference is, I can learn from Mother Nature and improve on her methods. She sometimes goes overboard and kills the patient with the remedy (too high a fever).

    3. Re:Just say no to drugs... by Bengie · · Score: 1

      She sometimes goes overboard and kills the patient with the remedy (too high a fever)

      I asked a few doctors about that and did some searching. While it does happen, it only happens when the brain is already damaged and not working correctly or a very young child and their body still isn't developed enough to manage temperature properly. I asked the ER and my regular doctor because I went into the ER one night when I spiked to 104.5f (40.3c) and my finger nails started to turn purple. By the time I got to the ER, everything was going back to normal. I described the situation to the ER doctor and they said that's normal and unless I have had brain damage or have some sort of family history of death by fever, not to worry. Said healthy adults dying or brain damaged from fevers is a Hollywood thing, or a rare drug reaction.

      I'm not sure at what point a person's body is mature enough, but by adulthood(18), your body should never cause a deadly fever. *My understanding. If you don't feel well, go to the doctor

  12. Soap and water and mechanical abrasion. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is that simple.

  13. Rotate The Shield Frequencies. by Templer421 · · Score: 1

    Take some of the antibiotics out of use for 20 years and let vulnerabilities reestablish themselves.

    Start using those again and take another group out of use for 20 years.

    1. Re:Rotate The Shield Frequencies. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Which is how we're doing it now.

    2. Re:Rotate The Shield Frequencies. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Chloramphenicoland Rifampinare two that come to mind. The former is a very broad spectrum, very potent antibiotic that fell out of favor because it tended to wipe out the blood forming system. But judicious use is coming back.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  14. A small wonder has happened. by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    For once Betteridge is wrong and we can answer the question with 'Yes'.

  15. How about fire? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure fire kills bacteria, so how about flamethrowers? (Predictably, Elon is ahead of the curve on this.)

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:How about fire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure fire kills bacteria, so how about flamethrowers? (Predictably, Elon is ahead of the curve on this.)

      Fire is a hell of a drug

  16. From the Department of Redundancies Department by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Important question to be sure.

    Also, can we kill acid-resistant bacteria with acid?

    Or insecticide-resistant insects with insecticide?

    Or herbicide-resistant weeds with herbicide?

    Inquiring minds want to know.

  17. And bats could just fly over the top by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    I just thought it looked badly phrased.

    Can we overwhelm mammal resistant fortifications with non-pig mammals? Rather depends which mammals they're resistant against, doesn't it?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  18. Quarantine the sick and burn the corpses. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Worked in the old days. As for saving the individual? That is a luxury we will no longer have.

  19. No we cant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microbes are resistant to even dyes used to stain them. So, no.

    What needs to change is therapy design. You cant treat something that evolves and changes by the day taking exactly the same amount of drugs at exactly the same interval gor an arbitrary amount of time.

  20. The old stuff still works. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My parent's old GP (who retired many, many years ago now.) advocated for and practiced using the lowest effective dose. The example that comes to mind is that he would sometimes write a prescription for a sulfa instead of a more conventional antibiotic.

  21. Phage therapy by BeCre8iv · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

    That is all.

    --
    This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
  22. Mod parent up.... by BeCre8iv · · Score: 1

    And spend a fraction of the military budget on an _actuial_ existencial threat.

    --
    This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
  23. I got the crohn's from antibiotics killing my gut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now my intestines follow me around and point to every bathroom

  24. Consider bio-resonance by edis · · Score: 0

    Recently I came over non-chemical methods to address these, and was very surprised, impressed with research achievements of Raymond Royal Rife, who was basically silenced by establishments of medical industries. Highly recommend to have reading on him, couple of first search results are decent starting point. There are affordable devices, targeting popular use, that implement his method, well worth use and elaboration.

    --
    Servant of karma
    1. Re:Consider bio-resonance by edis · · Score: 1

      Mr. Moderator, have you had suggested reading and thinking, reconsidered statement made, before applying your quick evaluation, most likely based on poor representation of the idea to your mind and experience? Poor victim of hurry, don't be that silly.

      --
      Servant of karma
  25. No? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's a lot of testing that'll need to be done. I'm sure a lot of these candidates won't be effective antibiotics at their therapeutic doses. Without adequate lab testing I have to wonder if physicians would even ponder the use of non-antibiotic drugs for antibiotic replacement since without investigation I have to assume they'd be assuming some liability.

  26. Re: Paul Ryan for PRISONER GENERAL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bet Melania had a no-sex clause written into the pre-nup. She was artificially inseminated with Trump's seed.

  27. Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) by KonoWatakushi · · Score: 1

    Targeted alpha therapy has the potential to eliminate omni-resistant bacteria, as well as inoperable cancers and viruses like HIV. It arms a targeting biomolecule with a potent alpha emitter that will ensure their destruction. Unlike with antibiotics and other drugs, there is no way for the offending organisms to evolve a resistance.

    The technique has shown great promise, but research is limited by the availability of actinium-225 and bismuth-213, for which there are no good substitutes. Fortunately, they are a byproduct of energy from thorium, and this article also contains some detail on medical applications. Today though, there is only a very small amount to work with, from the dwindling remains of earlier thorium efforts.

    These invaluable isotopes fall on the neptunium decay chain, which while once present in nature, went extinct on earth long ago. They are inextricably linked to the thorium fuel cycle, and LFTR is the ideal machine to reproduce their precursor in quantity, and allow its extraction during normal operation.