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from the there's-many-a-slip-'twixt-the-lab-and-the-lip dept.
University of Sheffield and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) scientists have discovered several new related (dinuclear RuII) compounds which visualize and kill gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli (note - no word on whether it works on synthetic E.coli)
Bacteria are classified generally by what type of staining works on them using a method developed in the 1800's by Hans Christian Gram. 'Gram-negative' bacteria retain a stain color that shows them as a pinkish red coloring, these bacteria have cell walls that make it difficult to get drugs into them and many gram-negative bacteria have become significantly or even completely resistant to available drug treatments.
A new drug in the difficult gram-negative space is particularly important. Drug resistant bacteria already cause the deaths of over 50 thousand people a year in the US and EU alone, and as many as 10 million people a year could die worldwide every year by 2050 due to antibiotic resistant infections.
Doctors have not had a new treatment for gram-negative bacteria in the last 50 years, and no potential drugs have entered clinical trials since 2010.
The new drug compound has a range of exciting opportunities. As Professor Jim Thomas explains: "As the compound is luminescent it glows when exposed to light. This means the uptake and effect on bacteria can be followed by the advanced microscope techniques available at RAL.
"This breakthrough could lead to vital new treatments to life-threatening superbugs and the growing risk posed by antimicrobial resistance."
The studies at Sheffield and RAL have shown the compound seems to have several modes of action, making it more difficult for resistance to emerge in the bacteria.
Better yet
Mammalian cell culture and animal model studies indicate that the complex is not toxic to eukaryotes, even at concentrations that are several orders of magnitude higher than its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC).
The researchers plan to test the compounds against additional multi drug resistant bacteria next.
Journal Reference: Kirsty L. Smitten et al, Using Nanoscopy To Probe the Biological Activity of Antimicrobial Leads That Display Potent Activity against Pathogenic, Multidrug Resistant, Gram-Negative Bacteria, ACS Nano (2019). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.8b08440, Supporting Information
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(Score: 0, Troll) by Coward, Anonymous on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:40PM (4 children)
And the sort of nonsense you are writing is the reason Doctors don't prescribe proper antibiotics to people, even when they need them. Where is the study that shows a single life has been saved by holding back on treatment? The world is big and bacteria are all over the place. Some are naturally resistant to antibiotics while others are not. But you are obviously a self-flagellator who believes humans are the source of all problems.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Wednesday May 29 2019, @09:54PM (1 child)
One of the links above reinforces what you are saying : https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/12/13/0345220 [soylentnews.org]
Basically a multi-drug resistant bug from before there were drugs to be resistant to. Wierd eh?
The whole point of drugs is to fight disease, if you don't use them against a disease when needed there's little point to them.
Improper prescription of drugs (when they aren't needed) is a problem of course, but probably not as significant as antibioticus interruptus.
I think GP could have targeted his vent better at improper use of antibiotics, most specifically failing to properly complete a course of antibiotics, which is a tailor made activity designed to bring out resistant strains.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Interesting) by urza9814 on Friday May 31 2019, @01:11PM
Sure, but the problem is when they are prescribed to NOT fight disease. I've met more than one doctor who will prescribe antibiotics as treatment for a common cold or flu. At best, that does absolutely nothing; it's not going to do a damn thing to the virus but it CAN give any bacteria around a nice boost of immunity for next time.
Having said that, the real problem AIUI isn't really humans, it's cattle. Lots of our factory farms are pumping animals full of antibiotics for no reason at all as a purely preventative measure. That's not once every few years when you get a bad cold, that's millions of animals getting the stuff *constantly*. It's not the *sole* cause of resistance, sure. Just like your personal automobile is not the sole cause of global warming. But it is certainly a known and acknowledged contributor:
https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/challenges/from-farm-to-table.html [cdc.gov]
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday May 31 2019, @09:02PM (1 child)
WTF are you talking about? Do you even know what you're talking about? The only 'nonsense' in this discussion is your own post.
Antibiotics are being tossed into farm animal food as an precautionary additive, whether the animals need it or not.
Doctors are prescribing antibiotics to people who have *colds*. You do understand that antibiotics are pointless against a virus, yes?
Wholesale abuse of antibiotics has negligible benefits, while being a fantastic method of causing the exact bacterial resistance situation we have now found ourselves in.
If doctors are now hesitant to apply antibiotics out of fear of contributing to the problem, that is a judgement call that they are choosing to make. A couple decades ago, this situation *did not exist*. The number of bacteria that were resistant to all known antibiotics was so small as to be a statistical error. But because of antibiotics abuse, they are now downright common.
Screeching at me like some 4chan wannabe for pointing out these inconvenient facts accomplishes nothing other than proving to everyone how little you understand the situation.
(Score: 1) by Coward, Anonymous on Wednesday June 05 2019, @09:03PM
As someone who has had a clear UTI (indicated by test strips, fever, and other symptoms) where the Doctor did not want to prescribe antibiotics over the phone, I disagree. There is obviously a push to prescribe fewer antibiotics among doctors, which can cause real hardship for patients. When Doctors practice medicine, there is a lot of guesswork involved, and erring on the side of fewer antibiotics rather than more will lead to untreated illnesses.