Take a moment to imagine sweet Grandma Cathy. During one of her outings, likely to gather ingredients for baking, she was exposed to bacteria causing an infection. Poor Grandma Cathy develops pneumonia from this contact. Her condition, while unfortunate, is treatable. She is prescribed an antibiotic which treats her disease. Right now, Grandma Cathy is okay, but in the future, she might not be so fortunate. Antibiotic resistance patterns are becoming more common in bacteria cells, making the antibiotic medications less successful.
Photo Credit: Ava Traill
Microbiologists are finding antibiotics continue to show lower success rates in curing bacterial infections. This phenomenon, known as antibiotic resistance, is likely contributed to antibiotic abuse and overprescription.
When we take an entire prescription, all bacteria cells are killed or unable to reproduce. However, when we leave a prescription unfinished, even when asymptomatic, the cells are sometimes able to reproduce, and those with resistance to the antibiotic reproduce within the host.
Medical providers often overprescribe these medications for infections that are not bacterial. Therefore, introducing the body and any bacteria to the medication and allowing resistance. An English researcher named Brian G. Bell, and his research team, conducting research for the University of Nottingham, found “increased consumption of antibiotics may not only produce greater resistance at the individual patient level but may also produce greater resistance at the community, country, and regional levels.”
“It’s estimated that 80% of the antibiotics used each year in the United States are used in meat production,” said Diana Tata, Department of Microbiology expert at Daytona State College. “Factory farms make it easy for diseases to spread, but keeping animals healthy is not the main reason that antibiotics are added to animal feed.”
Bacteria cells reproduce by creating genetically identical clones of themselves, any cells that are not targeted and killed by the antibiotics create clones with the resistance. Sounds like an evil twin. Genetic material can be passed through horizontal transfer as well.
According to Daytona State biology professor, Raymond Emmett, “horizontal transfer is the transfer of pathogen or parasite from one organism to another of the same generation.” This process spreads disease and aid transfer of genetic information within bacteria cells.
Due to the lack of response from bacteria to antibiotics, medical providers will struggle to treat bacterial infections. This will become a major problem for people who already have compromised or weakened immune systems. This would be problematic for people such as poor Grandma Cathy.
Solutions to the crisis are yet to be known. One theory is currently being studied by researcher Tarequl Islam and his team at Noakhali University. They use antimicrobial peptides, pieces of DNA from reptiles and insects, and inject them into humans. This cellular material can fight off the bacterial cells. These peptides are unable to distinguish between the bacteria cells and the cells of the human host; thus, the peptides would treat the bacterial infection but would also harm the host.
Photo Credit: Ava Traill
The World Health Organization has been monitoring the changes in resistant bacteria since 2016 and has found very few results on solutions for global bacterial conflict.
Professor Tata presents steps each person can take to help prevent antibiotic resistance. She explains disease prevention through isolation when sick, refusing or asking doctors not to treat viral infections with antibiotics, as well as consuming antibiotic-free meat. These steps will help to lower resistance rates and create a healthier future.