Posted on 09/11/2006 9:35:10 PM PDT by CellPhoneSurfer
· Technique renders pathogens benign
· Crop and animal diseases could also be targeted
Scientists have taken a big step towards a new generation of antibiotics by designing compounds that stop bacteria "talking to each other", thwarting their ability to spread infection. The revolutionary approach renders bacteria benign rather than killing them off, and comes as many antibiotics are losing their potency against pathogens which have developed drug resistance.
Tests showed the compounds actively blocked the spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common bacterium which causes fatal lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis and leads to life-threatening blood infections in patients with serious burns or immune system disorders such as Aids.
Colonies of bacteria use chemical signals to keep tabs on their numbers and, like an amassing army, only attack when their populations are large enough to ensure they will swamp a host's immune defences. The bacteria sense their numbers by the strength of the chemical signals they receive and as soon as they reach a certain threshold change behaviour dramatically, growing aggressively and turning on virulence genes to cause infection. Many bacterial colonies also set up defences by secreting a mucus-like substance which forms a slimy, protective "biofilm" around them, making them nearly impervious to antibiotics.
In 2002 the US National Institutes of Health estimated that up to 80% of bacterial infections spread by using biofilms. The films offer such good protection that in many cases the bacteria could be killed only by giving the patient a lethal dose of antibiotics.
Read the rest of the article here.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
This is incredible news.
Science is surely fascinating.
bump
It sure is. A microbiologist friend of mine says, "After Vanomycin, it's 1930."
Now don't tell me this. I am trained that we were near the end of antibiotics & that we all were going to die w/o these drugs. Another drive-by media trick.
Amazing. Sounds like this could be a magic bullet to wipe out all bacteriologic illnesses.
Whats even more amazing is bacterias ability to adapt and find a way around anything we throw at it. This new class of drugs will also someday be outdated and bacteria will be resistant to it.
Never heard that one before. I'm skeptical.
Super-oxidized water kills bacteria; demonstrates potential for healing
Drat. Preview is my friend:
Make that, "against the antibiotic resistant bacterium"
If you read about the bacteriophage therapy I linked above, you will see that nature may have provided the best means of ridding ourselves of bacteria, even when they become resistant forms. Short, short version: When the bacterium mutate, so do the bacteriophages that attack them. And each bacteria usually has a few different types of bacteriophages that kill them.
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