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New high-speed test shows how antibiotics combine to kill bacteria:
Combinations of antimicrobial agents are invariably prescribed for certain infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. Bacterial infections that are not readily treatable, such as those affecting cardiac valves and prostheses, and lung infections in cystic fibrosis, are also usually subjected to a combination of antibiotics. The effect sought, "synergism", means that the joint action of the combined agents is more effective than could in fact have been expected, based on the efficacy of the separate agents. In contrast, the opposite phenomenon—that is, two antibiotics counteracting each other's effects ("antagonism")—is undesirable. However, knowing what the combined effect will be is not always easy.
With the newly developed method known as CombiANT (combinations of antibiotics), interactions between various antibiotics can be tested on agar plates and results obtained in 24 hours. The lead author of the study, Nikos Fatsis-Kavalopoulos, developed the method at Uppsala University. It is based on creating a "concentration gradient" of antibiotics that have been cast into an agar plate, using a 3-D-printed plastic disc.
On the agar plate, bacteria that have been isolated from an individual patient are then cultured to see how they react to different combinations of antibiotics.
Journal Reference:
Nikos Fatsis-Kavalopoulos, Roderich Roemhild, Po-Cheng Tang, et al. CombiANT: Antibiotic interaction testing made easy, PLOS Biology (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000856)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @03:43PM (1 child)
These days, all we need is "disinfectant" and "very powerful light".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 23 2020, @07:10PM
Yes powerful UV light will kill all microbes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @06:26PM (4 children)
Why can't you just put two antibiotics on two disks, place a mixture on a third disk, and compare their relative zones of inhibition?
Sounds simple enough. I wouldn't consider the above idea innovative in any way, just common sense.
So what's better about this article?
Wait, the advancement here is that it uses a 3D printed plastic disk, in opposed to, what, the regular cloth/cotton (or whatever material, I'm not sure) disks that were always used?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @06:43PM
Actually, after reading the article and looking at the diagram, that is pretty cool. Very simple and good enough to give a qualitative feel for how a combination of antibiotics might work. So simple I'm surprised something like this has never been done before (probably has).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @06:47PM (2 children)
uhm ... after thinking about this more it looks like you would need three control groups. At each triangular point you might expect the antibiotic concentrations to decrease. So the control groups would have to be one antibiotic in all three slots and you would need three additional disks, one disk per antibiotic (and the fourth disk with a different antibiotic in each slot).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @06:55PM (1 child)
Now in going through the rest of the article it just talks about placing disks in relatively close proximity to each other and comparing the zones of inhibition in between various combinations of disks. There is absolutely nothing innovative here, this is just nothing more than common sense.
A problem with this could be that the antibiotic concentrations just inbetween both disks would be the smallest though you can maybe somewhat compare the effects of relative combinations to the effect of the antibiotic by itself. I figure the round disk with three partitions was meant to solve that problem in part but it kinda creates its own set of problems (as mentioned) which simply requires more control groups. Might as well just mix the antibiotics, place the mixture on a single disk, and compare with each individual antibiotic. Then you may have to try different combinations of mixtures as well.
All sorts of different random creative things you can try I suppose. I wouldn't consider any of them in particular that innovative, just common sense things to try in terms of trial and error.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @08:52PM
Now that I think about it having the disk partitioned by a triangular void makes no sense. The partition should have gone from the center of the circle to three equidistant points on the circle with no void inbetween. That would have eliminated the obvious problem I mentioned above. Why did they choose a triangular void I wonder?