It
is thought that antibiotic resistance is associated with a fitness cost,
meaning that bacteria that develop antibiotic resistance must sacrifice
something in order to do so. Because of this, proper use of antibiotics should
result in susceptible strains eventually replacing resistant ones.
According
to recent research, though, it appears that this paradigm might not be as solid
as previously thought. In fact, antibiotic-resistant strains might also be
fitter and more virulent, which may have profound impacts on the control and
treatment of bacterial infections.
"Recent
findings revealed a complicated love story between antibiotic resistance and
bacterial virulence. There was an ancient paradigm about the 'fitness cost of
antibiotic resistance,' but the emergence of the new technologies of
high-throughput sequencing has changed the field, allowing researchers to study
bacterial pathogenesis at the genome scale," said Dr. David Skurnik,
senior author of a new Bioessays article. "This new, unbiased approached
has revealed that unfortunately the worst case scenario of antibiotic resistant
bacteria being more fit and virulent was not uncommon, particularly during
infection."
For
further details see:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle
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