Researchers reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics

http://www.kurzweilai.net/researchers-reverse-bacterial-resistance-to-antibiotics?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=25c9e284af-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-25c9e284af-281895037

by ca98am79 • 11 years ago

74 21 11 years ago

kurzweilai.net

vmarsy• 11 years ago

Pretty interesting!

tldr: Instead of trying a random sequence of antibiotics, the authors present "a precise, ordered schedule of antibiotics that doctors could rely on and know that in the end, resistance will be reversed, and an antibiotic will work"

That optimal scheduling is found using the probability of mutations of the bacteria

dylanrw• 11 years ago

This is brilliant. One of those things that seem obvious once presented.

technofiend• 11 years ago

And what's the probability your patient will be as well ordered taking their antibiotics? Failing to complete courses is one of the reasons these resistant strains emerge in the first place.

Very cool science!! Real-world applicability? TBD.

tankenmate• 11 years ago

Most patients who are subject to resistant strain bacterial infection wind up in hospital quicker. I suspect this research is mainly aimed at either serious/critical acute care or debilitating chronic care situations which tend to be costly not only in monetary terms but also in life and death terms.

contingencies• 11 years ago

Also, the patient has to be sick long enough to withstand cycling multiple whole courses. I guess that limits applicability to a tiny portion of overall cases, like very bad post-op infections, the elderly stuck in hospital beds or something.

et2o• 11 years ago

For many conditions you can't simply rotate antibiotics. Antibiotics have specific targets and different efficacious for reasons that are entirely unrelated to the reasons that bacteria develop resistance, not to mention different pharmacokinetic and other biological properties.

This is something that looks great in a lab but may be very difficult if not often impossible to implement in practice.

rpenm• 11 years ago

Journal article here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

Melting_Harps4• 11 years ago

If we're throwing peer reviewed journals, I'd like to add this the mix because its siting in front of my desk:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2364932/pdf/MBD-...

(Check out the more recent citations for further reading)

I'm not diminishing the danger of super bacteria, and I believe being in hospitals is perhaps just as bad as being in some war zone in terms of mortality if you're immuno-compromised or recovering from a disease/surgery, but I find it odd (not really, I've seen the self-defeating internal machinations of academia/pharma with my own eyes) that the advent of using silver as an anti-microbial is so neglected in the narrative; Bosch uses it in Germany in their refrigerators, and companies like DeRoyal sell gauze dressings specifically stated for that purpose.

totallynotcool• 11 years ago

I dont think that I've ever seen the idea of silver being antimicrobial be neglected. We use burn dressings that are almost completely impregnated with silver, silver nitrate q-tips to stop bleeding(ouch), as well as topical ointments with some silver in it. Silver is pretty widely used in the medical field.

terravion• 11 years ago

This rotation of mechanisms of action to undo resistance is already widely practiced in agriculture with pesticides. It is part of the reason why organic agriculture and its heavy use of pesticides with low rotation is so problematic.

(In the crops I work most in, organic farmers spray a lot more than conventional farmers on balance. As surprising as that might be to people outside of agriculture.)

SomeStupidPoint• 11 years ago

I must admit that I don't really have the background to process your comment.

Can you... give a paragraph or two on what normal is and what organic farmers are doing differently to cause the difference?

gameshot911• 11 years ago

I'm confused too - I thought 'organic' meant no pesticides were used.

hibikir• 11 years ago

There's a variety of differences.

One of them is seeds themselves. Modern GMOs, more than being about being resistant to specific herbicides, are about built in pest control. It's part of the sales pitch to farmers: Buy this new seed, and you'll spend less in pesticides. With a traditional seed, a farmer gets to either lose a lot of yield, or use pesticides. Organic farming doesn't ban all pesticides: Some are considered natural, and are used a whole lot to protect the crop.

The problem is that organic pesticides are not necessarily less toxic for humans, or less likely to harm the environment. In fact, some organic pesticides are very toxic, even though they are 'natural'. It get worse when we take into account that they have to be used in large quantities. Practical toxicity is affected by how much we use, and then ho much actually 'leaks out' of the farm.

We also have the lower yields: A more 'natural' seed tends to yield less in practice, so to get the same number of bushels, you need to plant more plants, and protect more plants. Welcome less forests, and more pesticides!

So the picture of toxicity and environmental impact of organic vs GMO+synthetic pesticides is pretty complicated.

Melting_Harps4• 11 years ago

I must admit that I don't really have the background to process your comment.
Can you... give a paragraph or two on what normal is and what organic farmers are doing differently to cause the difference?
> I'm confused too - I thought 'organic' meant no pesticides were used.

I may be wrong, but given the context I think he means to say that organic farmers will regularly spray more frequently (things like neem or DE) which are to protect against pests or compost teas on heavy feeder crops. I never did conventional agriculture, but regularly observed it (vegetable/vineyards) from afar during my apprenticeship in Europe and I think this varies depending on crop (eg something like 50% of all pesticides used in the US is used on cotton for example).

And to add further context depending on the type of organic agriculture (as it encompasses 3 branches in my opinion) you will also want to inoculate your soil bacteria/microorganisms for soil vitality and to fine-tune the microbiology as well as perform homeopathic remedies t follow your growing season.

Source: I'm a Biodyanmic Master Gardener/Farm Manager with a background in Biology.

PS: Nice to see more people involved in tech and Ag, terravion; I'm also merging the two, do you mind if we can chat about your operations tech position?

I just finished my project in Maui and I'm back home in California with only a side project to keep me busy this season and I want to get my head back in; I made some recent headway with the organic/biodynamic community in Sonoma county when I was up there last month that I think may prove useful to your operation.

bhickey• 11 years ago

There are some really neat things going on here! If you're interested in this, check out a paper by one of my old mentors: Darwinian evolution can follow only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16601193) In general, the more deleterious a mutation, the more mutational paths we see for escaping a local minima. (The rate of compensatory mutation in the DNA bacteriophage phiX174 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15911582)

Researchers reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics

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