A simple strategy could make first-line antibiotics more effective against resistant bacteria
Researchers have identified a single, simple metric to inform medication regimen design that could bring an entire arsenal of first-line antibiotics back into the fight against drug-resistant pathogens.
A computer simulation created by Hannah Meredith, a biomedical engineering graduate fellow at Duke University, revealed that a regimen based on a pathogen’s recovery time could eliminate an otherwise resistant strain of bacteria. In theory, a database of recovery times for bacterial and antibiotic combinations could allow first-line antibiotics to clear many resistant infections.
Meredith has already begun lab work to create such a database, and early tests are confirming her model’s predictions.
The study appears in PLOS Computational Biology on April 23, 2015.
“Bacteria are forming resistance to antibiotics faster than we can make new ones, so there is a real need to use the antibiotics that are already on the market more efficiently,” said Meredith. “We hope this research will help hospitals improve patient outcomes while also making our antibiotics last as long as possible.”
The computer simulation models the relationship between bacteria, antibiotics and a method of resistance called beta-lactamase—an enzyme that degrades beta-lactam antibiotics, one of the largest and most-used classes of antibiotics. Many beta-lactam antibiotics are currently disregarded out of concern for the infection being completely resistant to that type of antibiotic—even if the antibiotic appeared to be effective in the lab. The new model, however, reveals that the infection might be temporarily sensitive to the antibiotic before the beta-lactamase degrades the drug and allows the infection to recover.
“You can think of this as a race between the cells and the antibiotics,” said Lingchong You, the Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke and Meredith’s advisor. “Before their beta-lactamase degrades the antibiotics, the cells are still sensitive and can be killed. But the antibiotics degrade faster than the cell population declines, allowing some cells to survive and repopulate.”
When clinicians realize an infection is resistant, they often skip straight to some of the strongest antibiotics available. But the study indicates that if they instead changed the dosing frequency of first-line antibiotics such that each dose is delivered while the bacteria are weakened during their recovery period, some infections could be cleared without skipping to the last resort.
Doctors also need to be careful, however, not to wreck native populations of bacteria vital to human health. A database detailing the responses of different strains to different antibiotics could allow Meredith’s computer model to determine the most efficient regimen to keep total exposure to a minimum. It could also indicate if multiple doses would not work, letting clinicians know when it is time to call in the heavy artillery.
Read more: Finding New Life for First-Line Antibiotics
The Latest on: Antibiotics
via Google News
The Latest on: Antibiotics
- Feeling sick even after taking a course of antibiotics? It could be thanks to an imbalanced guton April 22, 2021 at 6:08 am
Healthy gut bacteria can bolster your immunity, reduce inflammation, and even promote your mental health. Here's how to protect it now ...
- Reducing the use of antibiotics in the meat sectoron April 22, 2021 at 1:35 am
The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a looming global crisis, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases, resulting in prolonged illness, disability, ...
- Antibiotics Market Research Report by Action Mechanism, by Drug Class, by Spectrum - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19on April 21, 2021 at 2:03 am
New York, April 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of ...
- Antibiotics protect apples from fire blight, but do they destroy the native microbiome?on April 20, 2021 at 9:00 pm
Our work adds to a growing body of literature that demonstrates the sustainability of current methods of disease control used by apple growers,'' said Wallis. While previous research investigated this ...
- Animal Antibiotics and Antimicrobials Market Size to Surpass US$ 5.81 billion By 2027on April 18, 2021 at 11:12 pm
Global Animal Antibiotics and Antimicrobials Market size to reach USD 5.81 billion by 2027 and is valued approximately at USD 4.4 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate ...
- Global scarcity of novel antibiotics drives the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistanceon April 18, 2021 at 10:22 pm
The world is still failing to develop desperately needed antibacterial treatments, despite growing awareness of the urgent threat of antibiotic resistance, according to report by the World Health ...
- Antibiotics pipeline ‘insufficient’ to tackle antimicrobial resistanceon April 16, 2021 at 3:59 pm
The World Health Organization’s latest "Antibacterial Pipeline Report" shows only 43 antibiotics in clinical development. As initiatives scramble to fill the gap, experts worry it won't be enough.
- Utility of prophylactic antibiotics for preventing febrile neutropenia during cabazitaxel therapy for castration-resistant prostate canceron April 16, 2021 at 2:31 am
The aim was to investigate the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics for the prevention of febrile neutropenia (FN) during cabazitaxel therapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) with G-CSF ...
- WHO warns the world is still failing to develop desperately needed antibioticson April 15, 2021 at 5:00 am
A new World Health Organization report shows a “persistent failure to develop, manufacture, and distribute” effective new antibiotics. " ...
- Antibiotics in development not enough to tackle 'superbugs': WHOon April 15, 2021 at 4:59 am
Almost all new antibiotics brought to market in recent years are variations of drug classes discovered decades ago, according to a WHO report released on Thursday, underscoring just how insufficient ...
via Bing News