tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post6632367780251859544..comments2024-02-08T12:10:38.282+00:00Comments on Life of a Lab Rat: Models for the evolution of bacterial resistanceLab Rathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-13978247234403552532010-08-03T22:27:23.299+01:002010-08-03T22:27:23.299+01:00That's good to know - I kinda figured people w...That's good to know - I kinda figured people would be exploring these things. Now that I'm out of the sciences, it's a bit harder to get access to review articles and the like.<br /><br />Brace yourself, since another wave of antibiotic resistance questions is likely to hit, since "Dr. Oz" is doing the "superbug" this week. <br /><br />Yrsh.Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04434446402998248168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-53399350804423525632010-08-03T16:55:44.422+01:002010-08-03T16:55:44.422+01:00@Scott - it's a very good approach and one tha...@Scott - it's a very good approach and one that is being actively looked into, especially for things like phage therapy. These are usually presented as ways of making antibiotics more powerful (or providing antibiotic 'adjuvents') and they certainly have potential to increase the shelf life of antibiotics with resistance-developing.<br /><br />Multi-antibiotic treatments are (I believe - will have to check with a medic) already being used, and these are usually chosen intelligently, i.e the use of antibiotics that both block different parts of the cell wall system, so that resistance to one requires sensitivity to the other.<br /><br />The only problem with multiple antibiotics is that they are sometimes toxic for humans.Lab Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-73506732717303565212010-08-03T15:15:12.167+01:002010-08-03T15:15:12.167+01:00Has there been any discussion of the possible use ...Has there been any discussion of the possible use of multi-pronged therapies? <br />Sort of like HAART for HIV treatment. <br /><br />The idea, as I understand it, is that if different drugs target radically different mechanisms, then the use of 2 or three (say, a traditional antibiotic and a QS disruptor) would make the chance of evolving resistance to both drugs in the same bug far less likely than if using a single target.<br /><br />It's a thought, anyway. Don't know if it's a particularly good one :)Scott_SGGhttp://sgg333.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-15888622903579097342010-08-02T08:25:52.516+01:002010-08-02T08:25:52.516+01:00That's what this paper was looking at. They fo...That's what this paper was looking at. They found that in cases where the bacteria are inside another organism, the lack of QS *does* prevent them from growing as a) some bacteria use QS molecules for growth and b) they get very quickly outcompeted.<br /><br />But you are right, if they could grow fine without quorum sensing there would be no selection pressure. This was the prevailing view (or at least very strongly hoped for), and it's the view that this paper breaks down. It looks like resistance to this kind of treatment could very well develop resistance.Lab Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-9136188863834614592010-08-02T05:28:22.929+01:002010-08-02T05:28:22.929+01:00Why would the bacteria evolve resistance to the QS...Why would the bacteria evolve resistance to the QS-prohibitor? Would they not keep growing without QS? If they still grow, then there is no selection pressure for the QS-prohibitor-resistance to evolve, right?Bjørn Østmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08859177313382114917noreply@blogger.com