Are we close to curbing the evolution of antibiotic resistance?

Medical researchers have developed a new approach to improving the effectiveness of antibiotics in bacterial infections. The study outlines ways to controlling antibiotic resistance through targeted gene interactions.

The scientists identified a prototypical pattern in the development of resistance: Those bacterial strains that initially reacted more sensitively to drugs developed a greater resistance to the drug during the course of the evolutionary experiment. However, the researchers were particularly interested in the conditions under which this pattern is broken and virtually no resistance develops.

The study showed that this happens when the bacterium exhibits certain functional disorders. The researchers identified the areas of membrane transport and chaperones, which play a decisive role in the error-free production of proteins. If these functions are not fully intact in the bacterium, an antibiotic can attack these areas much more effectively and improve its effectiveness in the long term. In the future, these molecular targets may help to improve antibiotics.

See:

Marta Lukačišinová, Booshini Fernando, Tobias Bollenbach. Highly parallel lab evolution reveals that epistasis can curb the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16932-z

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)