Researchers
have provided new insight into a mechanism behind the evolution of antibiotic
resistance in a type of bacterium that causes severe infections in humans.
Their
findings in the multidrug-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa suggest the strategy could be exploited to
develop new and sustainable antibiotic treatments.
In this
study, Barbosa
and his colleagues looked into an evolutionary trade-off called collateral
sensitivity in P. aeruginosa.
Collateral sensitivity occurs when bacteria evolve resistance to one drug but
develop increased sensitivity to another drug at the same time.
Their
experiments revealed that P. aeruginosa
produces distinct cases of evolved collateral sensitivities in response to
different drugs. Some of these are generally stable over time, leading to
increased population extinction or at least the absence of the evolution of
multidrug resistance. The team also found that the effectiveness of drugs was
determined by the order in which they were used, the evolutionary costs for the
bacteria when evolving antibiotic resistance, and the underlying genetic
mechanisms.
See:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology
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