Ridiculous hype. There is nothing special about the organisms cell wall that makes it a “superbug”. Most of its antibiotic resistance is due to its ability to acquire antibiotic resistance plasmids from a wide range of organisms. There is also no reason why the organism cannot become resistant to the new antimicrobial.
Science Signaling Podcast: 16 February 2010
This link has some new immunology insights about Porphyromonas gingivalis, the bug usually implicated in gingivitis and periodontitis.
Moreover, P. gingivalis has been implicated in systemic inflammatory diseases. For example, this bacterium has been found alive in atherosclerotic plaque lesions and in lung abscesses. Let me say here that periodontitis is epidemiologically associated with atherosclerosis and oral aspiration pneumonia. And, in addition to that, there is recent evidence which suggests that P. gingivalis infection may prime the autoimmune response in rheumatoid arthritis.
The podcast worked until I closed its window.
The golden age of antibiotics is over, but I don’t think I realized just HOW over it was until I started reading articles like this.
Will we ever see another penicillin?