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Colistin is a last resort antibiotic used against multi-drug resistant pathogens. Now scientists have found a strain of bacterium that can evade it.
For the first time, researchers have discovered strains of a deadly, multidrug-resistant bacterium that uses a cryptic method to also evade colistin, an antibiotic used as a last-resort treatment. That's according to a study of US patients published this week by Emory University researchers in the open-access microbiology journal mBio.
The wily and dangerous bacteria involved are carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae or CRKP, which are already known to resist almost all antibiotics available, including other last-line antibiotics called carbapenems. The germs tend to lurk in clinical settings and can invade the urinary tract, bloodstream, and soft tissues. They're members of a notorious family of multidrug-resistant pathogens, called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which collectively have mortality rates as high as 50 percent and have spread rapidly around the globe in recent years. A 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were more than 9,300 CRE infections in the US each year, leading to 600 deaths. Both the CDC and the World Health Organization have listed CRE as one of the critical drug-resistant threats to public health, in need of "urgent and aggressive action."
That's what we knew about CRKP before this week.
In the new study, the Emory researchers discovered two strains of CRKP—isolated from the urine of patients in Atlanta, Georgia—that can also resist colistin. But they do so in a poorly understood, surreptitious way. At first, they appear vulnerable to the potent antibiotic in standard clinical tests, but with more advanced testing and exposure to the drug, they reveal that they can indeed survive it. In mice, the strains caused infections that couldn't be cured by colistin and the mice died of the infections. Mice infected with typical CRKP were all saved with colistin.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by cocaine overdose on Monday March 12 2018, @01:56PM (7 children)
Remember to freeze-dry your shit for the inevitable scenario where the antibiotics needed to treat CRKP will wipe out your digestive flora for good. And start sleeping in the dirt, wipe your ass with your fingers, don't wash your hands, don't use soap, live in a moldy environment to toughen up your respiratory system, sleep only 2 hours a night so CRKP has less time to sneak up on you, and make sure to dust the insides of your sleep quarters to airize the dead skin for easier respiratory inhalation. Also, be sure to drink a lot of water, I'm talking 1-2 gallons of water, a day to keep those kidneys alert. Can't have them slacking when colistin comes around and wipes out your nerves system and renal function.
(Score: 4, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Monday March 12 2018, @02:11PM (6 children)
So are you like Eth's new roomate or something?
(Score: 3, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Monday March 12 2018, @03:00PM
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Monday March 12 2018, @05:33PM (4 children)
Apparently the child of Arik and Ethanol-Fueled.
Doomsday predictions can be more accurate than we thought.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday March 12 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)
Wow, is there nothing CRISPR can't do?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday March 13 2018, @01:01AM
Fix them.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:02AM
Wasn't the child of Arik and Ethanol-Fueled itself a doomsday prediction?
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday March 13 2018, @01:37PM
And Jmorris is the godfather.