NDM-1 article. If I’m understanding this correctly, scientists have identified an enzyme present in bacteria that are commonly found in humans (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia) that is resistant to all antibiotics. Is this just a bit of scare journalism, or is there some serious potential for a Very Bad Bug here?
It’s not shocking news, mostly that’s just the scare journalism. Bacteria have all sorts of defense mechanisms against antibiotics. NDM-1 is apparently a new class of beta-lactamases, which are enzymes that chew up many types of antibiotics. Other beta lactamases aren’t anything new to science, though. Apparently the CDC just published observation of this particular type of antibiotic resistance which has spread to the US from India.
Basically it’s something that public health officials should be watching for, but it’s not The End Of The World By Mutant Superbug.
Antibiotic resistance is inevitable. I vaguely recall that someone studying resistance genes went out and surveyed natural bacterial isolates for antibiotic resistance. In a small sample of soil, they could find bacteria that were resistant to every known antibiotic agent. Both antibiotics and the resistance genes are parts of ancient evolutionary struggles between microbes, so it’s no surprise that there are bacteria with strong defenses.
But we should be worried about use of antiobiotics in industrial farming, right? Such use is practically an nursery for multi-resistant bacteria.
Oh, certainly. Antibiotic strains are inevitable, but if we abuse antibiotics we’ll hasten the evolution and spread of those resistant strains. Health care professionals are getting smarter and aren’t over prescribing as much as they used to, though some would argue that they’re still using antibiotics way too often. But in animal feed? Yeah, treating animals (reared in confined germ-filled environments) with constant antibiotics is just about the perfect way to bring about evolution of new resistant pathogens.
But there’s not a whole lot to be done from an individual perspective. About all you can do is write your congresscritter asking for tighter regulations on factory farming. Or vote with your wallet and buy meat that wasn’t raised on antibiotics, though that can be hard to find and expensive. And don’t demand an antibiotic every time you go to the doctor with a runny nose, but take the whole course of antibiotics every time it is prescribed. Oh, and quit being so damn paranoid about bacteria.
Other than that, worrying won’t accomplish anything.
That article has a lot of errors and doesn’t even explain exactly what this NDM-1 is. From what I gathered reading the wiki this is just another type of beta-lactamase enzyme. Beta-lactamases are enzymes that bind to beta-lactam antibiotics (penicillians, cephalasporins, and carbopenemes) and deactivate the the antibiotic. They are nothing new, many bacteria already have beta-lactamase enzymes, and there are drugs used to fight them already.
Clavulanic acid is a beta-lactamase inhibitor that is commonly mixed with Amoxicillian, it is used to give the beta-lactamase a target to degrade, using up the enzyme, allowing the amoxicillian to reach a higher concentration.
Oh, one major error in that article, MRSA has nothing to do with beta-lactamase. MRSA is resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics due to a modification in the penicillin binding sites (PBP) that don’t allow any beta-lactam to work.
So, just another bit of junk science then? Thanks for you answers.
Not junk science. Who said that?