Can We Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria With Non-Antibiotic Drugs? (economist.com) 62
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.
"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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Haha but this whole question is nonsense (Score:5, 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.
No (Score:2)
You might be able to fight antibiotic resistant ones, though.
Re:No (Score:5, 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.
And bats could just fly over the top (Score:2)
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?
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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.
Re: (Score:2)
"killing bacteria without antibiotics" (Score:2)
reminded me of this clip:
https://youtu.be/VDJehCXMKwI?t... [youtu.be]
We can develop new antibiotics... (Score:2)
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 inc
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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/... [wikipedia.org]
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From that link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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/... [wikipedia.org]
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 lik
Phages (Score:4, 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.
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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 focu
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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
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"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
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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 s
Re: (Score:2)
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
Mod parent up.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Just say no to drugs... (Score:2)
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 ki
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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.
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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).
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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
Rotate The Shield Frequencies. (Score:2)
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.
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Which is how we're doing it now.
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Chloramphenicol [wikipedia.org]and Rifampin [wikipedia.org]are 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.
A small wonder has happened. (Score:2)
For once Betteridge is wrong and we can answer the question with 'Yes'.
How about fire? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure fire kills bacteria, so how about flamethrowers? (Predictably, Elon is ahead of the curve on this [boringcompany.com].)
Phage therapy (Score:2)
That is all.
Re: (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.
Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) (Score:2)
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 ar