Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are strains of bacteria that have developed the ability to withstand the effects of antibiotics, making these medications ineffective in treating infections caused by these bacteria. This resistance can occur through genetic mutations or the acquisition of resistance genes from other bacteria. Antibiotic resistant bacteria pose a significant public health threat, as they can lead to more difficult-to-treat infections and increased healthcare costs.
7 Key excerpts on "Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria"
eBook - ePub- José-Luis Capelo-Martínez, Gilberto Igrejas, José-Luis Capelo-Martínez, Gilberto Igrejas(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, at least two million people get an antibiotic‐resistant infection that causes at least 23 000 deaths annually. When bacteria develop mechanisms to survive and grow in the presence of the drugs that were designed to kill them, they are considered resistant. The problem worsens when these bacteria cause infections that become difficult or even impossible to treat due to their resistance. This leads to a high morbidity and mortality, as well as a prolongation of hospitalization, which ultimately increases the financial costs dispended for each patient. Also, the infected patient will have a higher workplace absenteeism, which leads to innumerous socioeconomic consequences. And yet to be determined are the costs related to psychological and emotional changes caused by pain and suffering (among other factors) (Scott2009).In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a list of priority pathogens resistant to antibiotics, encouraging both the scientific community and pharmaceutical industries to develop new antimicrobials to combat these antimicrobial‐resistant pathogens (WHO2017). Unfortunately, the pipeline for the development of new antibacterial drugs is now virtually empty, particularly for the treatment of Gram‐negative enteric bacteria (WHO2014). This, coupled with the common appearance of resistance shortly after theintroduction of a new antibiotic and with the regulatory constraints to their use, requires the development of effective alternatives, a research that is still in the early stages (WHO2014; Ruer et al.2015).During the last decades, bacteriophages (phages) gained attention in the West as alternatives to antibiotics. Phages are viruses that infect bacteria...
eBook - ePubAntibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in the Environment
Volume 1 in the Advances in Environmental Pollution Research series
- Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
...Furthermore, alteration in membrane permeability, antibiotic target modifications in bacteria, and resistant gene transfer to next generations also cause resistance to antibiotics and, hence, bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Neisseria gonorrhea, etc. have become resistant and cause lethal diseases in human beings. To avoid such resistance, molecular methods are to be adopted such as RNA-mediated gene silencing, biosynthetic gene cluster (BSG) control mechanism, and most importantly, nanomedicines are key developments in this area. Keywords Antibiotic resistance; Antimetabolites; Pathogens; Phenotypic resistance; Resistance 19.1. What are antibiotics? Antibiotics are vast range of medicines that mimic the growth of bacteria on onset of infection in living systems. Originally, they were termed as “classical antibiotics,” but with passage of time, bacterial resistance prolonged and as a result new and advance forms of antibiotics have been discovered (Hancock, 1997). For the last 30 years, peptide antibiotics have been used due to less chance of resistance and rapid mechanism of action due to their action of direct cell membrane disruption (Fajardo and Martínez, 2008). Pathogens, especially bacteria, are greatly influenced by these antibiotics. With excessive use of antibiotics in adults, pathogens are showing resistance against antibiotics, which is an alarming situation and can weaken the immune system of an individual (Boman, 1995). Here, different mechanisms are discussed that are involved in producing resistance in bacterial species. 19.1.1. Human pathogens The human body is complex and has a thriving ecosystem. The human body constitutes 10 13 human cells and 10 14 fungal, protozoan, and bacterial cells that are evidence of thousands of species of microbes residing in the human body. These microorganisms, referred as normal flora, reside in certain parts, i.e., mouth, vagina, skin, and large intestine. Additionally, human body gets infected by viruses...
eBook - ePubOne Health
People, Animals, and the Environment
- Ronald M. Atlas, Stanley Maloy, Ronald M. Atlas, Stanley Maloy(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- ASM Press(Publisher)
...2013. Antibiotic resistance in and from nature. Microbiol Spectrum 1(1):OH-0005-2012. doi:10.1128/microbiolspec.OH-0005-2012. REFERENCES 1. Kirby WM, Rantz LA. 1943. Quantitative studies of sulfonamide resistance. J Exp Med 77: 29–39. 2. Finland M. 1971. Changes in susceptibility of selected pathogenic bacteria to widely used antibiotics. Ann N Y Acad Sci 182: 5–20. 3. Keen PL, Montforts MHMM (ed). 2012. Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ. 4. D’Costa VM, McGrann KM, Hughes DW, Wright GD. 2006. Sampling the antibiotic resistome. Science 311: 374–377. 5. Sommer MO, Dantas G, Church GM. 2009. Functional characterization of the antibiotic resistance reservoir in the human microflora. Science 325: 1128–1131. 6. Cundliffe E, Demain AL. 2010. Avoidance of suicide in antibiotic-producing microbes. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 37: 643–672. 7. Sommer MO, Church GM, Dantas G. 2010. The human microbiome harbors a diverse reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes. Virulence 1: 299–303. 8. D’Costa VM, King CE, Kalan L, Morar M, Sung WW, Schwarz C, Froese D, Zazula G, Calmels F, Debruyne R, Golding GB, Poinar HN, Wright GD. 2011. Antibiotic resistance is ancient. Nature 477: 457–461. 9. Pallecchi L, Lucchetti C, Bartoloni A, Bartalesi F, Mantella A, Gamboa H, Carattoli A, Paradisi F, Rossolini GM. 2007. Population structure and resistance genes in antibiotic-resistant bacteria from a remote community with minimal antibiotic exposure. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 51: 1179–1184. 10. Martinez JL. 2009. The role of natural environments in the evolution of resistance traits in pathogenic bacteria. Proc Soc Biol 276: 2521–2530. 11. Asimov A, Mackie RI. 2007. Evolution and ecology of antibiotic resistance genes. FEMS Microbiol Lett 271: 147–161. 12. Allen HK, Donato J, Wang HH, Cloud-Hansen KA, Davies J, Handelsman J. 2010. Call of the wild: antibiotic resistance genes in natural environments. Nat Rev Microbiol 8: 251–259. 13. Courvalin P. 2006...
eBook - ePub- Neetu Sharma, Abhinashi Singh Sodhi, Navneet Batra, Neetu Sharma, Abhinashi Singh Sodhi, Navneet Batra(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...Keeping this in mind, large-scale biological changes can shake up the chemical hotspots which produce organic molecules or act as sinks for them. There is no way of reversing any damage done to the biological portion of primary cycles of our environment, such as the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and so on. 13.2.4 A NTIBIOTIC R ESISTANCE AND S UPERBUGS One of the most significant risks emerging with the development of high-level bio-technology is the way it challenges modern medicine and healthcare. Addressing a significant concern, we generally use antibiotics to treat microbial infections. Antibiotics like penicillin, ampicillin and kanamycin are substances produced by living organisms that inhibit or stop the growth of other microbes. In some cases, medicines may be able to kill a specific type of microbes. With new biotechnology, we can make highly particular antibiotics that somehow disrupt only the functions of the pathological cells. While this approach has saved millions of lives, it has given birth to a new problem. If the required objective is to be achieved, it leads to have an artificial selection in the microbes against the antibiotics. The ones that are susceptible are killed, and the ones that survive are highly resistant organisms called superbugs. The concern here is that at one point in time, we will run out of antibiotics and treatment methods for these new pathogens. At a time when we can cure most diseases and because of general economic prosperity, the basal immune tolerance of the masses has decreased, and any one superbug has the potential to start an epidemic. An organism like this raises concerns not only for humans but also for potential zoological infections and problems caused eventually for biodiversity and food webs. The other concern about superbugs are the mutations induced on exposure to these antibiotics. The supercolonies in the culture grow harder and harder to kill...
eBook - ePubMarine Microbiology
Bioactive Compounds and Biotechnological Applications
- Se-Kwon Kim(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley-VCH(Publisher)
...6 Marine Bacteria Are an Attractive Source to Overcome the Problems of Antibiotic-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus * Dae-Sung Lee, Sung-Hwan Eom, Myung-Suk Lee, and Young-Mog Kim 6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 Mechanisms of Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics When bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, most of the cells die. However, some of the cells that acquire mechanism of antibiotic resistance will survive and reproduce, and the new population will be drug resistant. Many bacteria now exhibit multidrug resistance, including Staphylococci, Enterococci, Gonococci, Streptococci, and others. The following are the four main mechanisms by which microorganisms exhibit resistance to antimicrobials: 1) Drug inactivation or modification : For example, enzymatic deactivation of penicillin G in some penicillin-resistant bacteria through the production of β-lactamases. 2) Alteration of target site : For example, alteration of PBP – the binding target site of penicillins – in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other penicillin-resistant bacteria. 3) Alteration of metabolic pathway : For example, some sulfonamide-resistant bacteria do not require para -aminobenzoic acid (PABA), an important precursor for the synthesis of folic acid and nucleic acids in bacteria inhibited by sulfonamides. Instead, like mammalian cells, they turn to utilizing preformed folic acid. 4) Reduced drug accumulation : By decreasing drug permeability and/or increasing active efflux (pumping out) of the drugs across cell membrane [1]. Antibiotic resistance of S. aureus was almost unknown when penicillin was first introduced in 1943; indeed, the original petri dish on which Alexander Fleming observed the antibacterial activity of the Penicillium mold was growing a culture of S. aureus. However, today, S. aureus has become resistant to many commonly used antibiotics. The increasing antibiotic resistance of S...
eBook - ePubBacterial Pathogenesis
A Molecular Approach
- Brenda A. Wilson, Malcolm Winkler, Brian T. Ho(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- ASM Press(Publisher)
...During the early antibiotic era, these soil bacteria were thought to be beneficial to humans because scientists were finding that many of them were producers of antibiotics. However, these bacteria were suddenly being seen as the only bacterium isolated from the blood, lungs, feces, or wounds of seriously ill patients. They also tend to exhibit a troubling, not-so-friendly characteristic. Because of the antibiotics present in their natural environment, they are often intrinsically resistant to a variety of antibiotics, which made infections by these opportunistic bacteria challenging to treat. Scientists and physicians reluctantly began to realize that a decisive human victory over bacteria had not occurred. Not only were known pathogens changing to be more resistant to antibiotics or better able to cause disease, but also new pathogens with markedly different virulence traits were emerging. The infectious disease picture was changing in a way that made it increasingly difficult to predict new patterns of bacterial disease. The serious threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to human health both in the United States and the world was documented in 2013 by reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Bacteria, a Formidable Ancient Life Form The brief foregoing account of how bacterial diseases have come into prominence as a major global health problem explored the recent past. However, to understand fully why no one should have been surprised by this development and why bacteria are such formidable opponents, it is necessary to take a closer look at the long history of bacteria, during which they were constantly forced to evolve and adapt to new conditions. Today, we realize that Earth is a microbial planet. Bacteria were probably the first form of life to appear on Earth, about 3.5 to 4 billion years ago (Figure 1-1)...
- Frank M. Aarestrup, Stefan Schwarz, Lina Maria Cavaco, Jianzhong Shen, Stefan Schwarz, Lina Maria Cavaco, Jianzhong Shen(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- ASM Press(Publisher)
...References1.World Health Organization (WHO).2014.Antimicrobial Resistance: Global Report on Surveillance. WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.2.Centers for Disease Control (CDC).2013.Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.3.Fleming A.1945.Penicillin. Nobel lecture.4.O’Neill J.2016.Tackling drug-resistant infections globally: final report and recommendations. The review on antimicrobial resistance.https://amr-review.org/.5.Laxminarayan R,Duse A,Wattal C,Zaidi AKM,Wertheim HFL,Sumpradit N,Vlieghe E,Hara GL,Gould IM,Goossens H,Greko C,So AD,Bigdeli M,Tomson G,Woodhouse W,Ombaka E,Peralta AQ,Qamar FN,Mir F,Kariuki S,Bhutta ZA,Coates A,Bergstrom R,Wright GD,Brown ED,Cars O.2013. Antibiotic resistance: the need for global solutions.Lancet Infect Dis13:1057–1098.[CrossRef]6.World Health Organization (WHO).2015.Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.7.Aarestrup FM,Wegener HC,Collignon P.2008. Resistance in bacteria of the food chain: epidemiology and control strategies.Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther6:733–750.[CrossRef][PubMed]8.Holmes AH,Moore LSP,Sundsfjord A,Steinbakk M,Regmi S,Karkey A,Guerin PJ,Piddock LJ.2016. Understanding the mechanisms and drivers of antimicrobial resistance.Lancet387:176–187.[CrossRef]9.Burow E,Käsbohrer A.2017. Risk factors for antimicrobial resistance inEscherichia coliin pigs receiving oral antimicrobial treatment: a systematic review.Microb Drug Resist23:194–205.[CrossRef][PubMed]10.Marti E,Variatza E,Balcazar JL.2014. The role of aquatic ecosystems as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance.Trends Microbiol22:36–41.[CrossRef][PubMed]11.Huijbers PMC,Blaak H,de Jong MCM,Graat EAM,Vandenbroucke-Grauls CMJE,de Roda Husman AM.2015. Role of the environment in the transmission of antimicrobial resistance to humans: a review.Environ Sci Technol49:11993–12004.[CrossRef][PubMed]12.Woolhouse MEJ,Ward MJ.2013...
