Antibiotics Combat Infectious Bacteria

Antibiotics, composed of microorganisms such as streptomycin and penicillin, kill other infectious microorganisms in the human body. At one point, antibiotics were considered to have “basically wiped out infection in the United States”, but due to their overuse and evolutionary

The disclosure by Alexander Fleming of penicillin opened up a totally new time of chemotherapy. Antibiotics are the chemotherapeutic specialists that kill or inhabit the development of microorganisms. These substance operators are utilized to treat malady by wrecking pathogenic microorganisms or restraining their development at focus sufficiently low to enough to avoid undesirable harm to the host (Dafale et al., 2016).

The misuse of penicillin and other antibiotics however is causing the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in which seemingly harmless infections turn to be deadly and dangerous. Antibiotics are not only casually used as treatments for bacterial infections, but are also used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, creating controversy on the proper uses of antibiotics. As advancements in the medical fields proved to be beneficial for a short period of time, today the misuse of these innovations are creating more and more problems that have proven to be dangerous to the accustomed health of the global population. Antibiotics were not always considered to be a superficial medication and, in fact, have been naturally used for millions of years, like with ants and their symbiosis with antibiotic producing fungi. Humans do not fully realize the value that antibiotics have brought to the population and do not take measures to preserve their use. In contrast, humans take for advantage the natural benefits that is given to them to overly benefit themselves, such as while creating revenue through mass production despite warning from scientists. This selfish misuse leads to consequences in which the future will have to provide solutions for, and perhaps even follow in the ants’ footsteps.

Antibiotics have played an essential role in the fight against diseases and infections since the 1940’s. Antibiotics are a leading cause for the rise of global average life expectancy in the 20th and 21st century. They have greatly reduced illnesses and deaths due to diseases. With the introductions of antibiotics in the 1940’s, like penicillin into clinical practice, formally deadly illnesses became immediately curable and saved thousands of lives (Yim 2006). Antibiotic use has been beneficial and when prescribed and taken correctly their effects on patients are exceedingly valuable. However, because these drugs have been used so widely and for such a long period of time the bacteria that the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted,

Antibiotics are amongst the most important medical discoveries and their introduction represents a remarkable success story (Hedin, 2011). The term antibiotics literally means against life (Walsh, 2000). Thus antibiotics can be used against any microbe such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. However, some people use the term to only apply to bacteria, but in this paper, the more appropriate term will be used.

The overconsumption of antibiotics is a big contribution to drug resistance and is why users should know what happens with the repeated use of these drugs. Even though some bacterial mutation occurs naturally, human use of antibacterial is the cause of higher-levels of resistance (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics 2014). Bacteria mutate either by genetic mutation or by receiving the defensive agent. During an infection bacteria multiply naturally within the body and when exposed to antibiotics, bacteria have an opportunity to adapt to the drug (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics 2014). During this period of

In the past tense 60 years, antibiotic drugs have been critical to the fight against infectious disease caused by bacteria and other microbe. Antimicrobial chemotherapy has been a lead cause for the dramatic rise of norm life expectancy in the Twentieth Century. 1 However, disease-causing bug that have become resistant to antibiotic drug therapy are an increasing public health trouble. “Wound contagion, tuberculosis, pneumonia, gonorrhea, childhood ear infections, and septicemia are just a few of the diseases that have become hard to treat with antibiotics.” 2 One part of the job is that bacteria and other germ that cause infections are remarkably resilient and have developed several ways to resist antibiotics and other antimicrobial drug. 3 Another part of the problem is due to increasing use, and abuse, of existing

Dr. Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues, paints antibiotics as a negative force in the world that causes disease. Dr. Blaser has studied the role of bacteria in human disease for more than thirty years at Vanderbilt University, and has experience as the director of the Human Microbiome Project at New York University. He also works with the National Institute of Health on infectious diseases. Meanwhile, Dr. David Shlaes, author of Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm, focuses on the drugs’ ability to cure disease. Dr. Shlaes has worked for 30 years in anti-infective academia, industry, and consulting. He served as Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University for five years, and then moved to industry, where he became vice president of Infectious Diseases at Wyeth Research. Later, he took a position as executive vice president of research and development at Idenix Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and formed his own consulting company. He now works predominantly with biotech companies and venture capital firms in their evaluation of anti-infective companies. While they take different approaches, the two doctors concur that antibiotic resistance is a major problem and that society needs to find ways to slow it down. One way to slow down the spread of resistant bacteria is finding ways to ensure

This “antibiotic boom” was, to put it lightly, one of the most significant advancements in human history. But there is a slight problem. Unlike virtually all other technological innovations, antibiotics become less effective the more they are used. They are unique in this regard.

These mutations, no matter what process that has led to their occurrence, block the action of antibiotics by interfering with their mechanism of action (1). Currently, antibiotics attack bacteria through one of two mechanisms. In both mechanisms the antibiotic enters the microbe and interferes with production of the components needed to form new bacterial cells. Some antibiotics act on the cell membrane, causing increased permeability and leakage of cell contents. Other antibiotics interfere with protein synthesis in cells. They block one or more of the steps involved in the transformation of nucleic acids into proteins.

Bactericidal antibiotics kill bacteria by interfering with the cell wall or organelle formation. (News Medical, 2004) Bacteriostatic antibiotics interfere with the cell’s metabolic processes, such as DNA replication and protein synthesis. (News Medical, 2004) Both actions inhibit the cells vital processes, causing cell death. (Crierie & Grieg, 2010) However, superbugs, such as strains of Staphylococcus aureus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis are deadly as they are very difficult to treat due to their resistance to multiple antibiotics. (NPS MedicineWise, 2012) Previously, Staphylococcus aureus was treated with benzyl penicillin. Currently, however, the bacteria cannot be controlled through this method, as they have developed resistance, which occurs because bacteria have the ability to mutate. After antibiotic contact, bacteria can alter their DNA in a way that enables them to resist the antibiotics. Bacteria are prokaryotic organisms and produce asexually by binary fission, thus their offspring have no genetic diversity. The only source of genetic variation in bacteria is through mutation. (Crierie & Grieg, 2010) Mutation refers to changes in gene sequences, resulting in variation in subsequent generations. This process occurs in every millionth to ten-millionth cell. (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, 2014) Certain types of mutations cause different types of resistance. They may enable

One of the greatest problems our world faces today is rising antibiotic resistance in viruses, bacteria and pathogens in general. This is a human-driven problem; the more we use antibiotics to save lives today, the stronger the pathogens infecting and harming us tomorrow will be. The entire problem is based in natural selection because antibiotics kill all of a pathogen except for a special few who were themselves deformed in a way that enabled them to survive. These then become the pathogens that infect everyone, so the previous solution is no longer able to solve the problem the next time around. There can be no single concrete solution, but rather endless research and discovery to stop these pathogens from causing death and destruction

Bacterial Pathogens have been developing resistance to antibiotic treatment soon after these drugs were developed. Mutations in the genes of the bacteria allow it to survive despite being exposed to the medications designed to kill them. Through directional selection, the bell curve is shifted to a phenotype that is designed to survive in harsh conditions that would normally kill them.

Antibiotics used in this experiment were Penicillin, Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline, and Erythromycin. Penicillin works by attacking bacteria’s peptidoglycan protein links and breaking down the cell wall. Penicillin works on gram negative bacteria but works better against gram positive bacteria. Chloramphenicol and Erythromycin work similarly by inhibiting bacteria’s protein synthesis, which inhibits overall bacterial growth. Both Chloramphenicol and Erythromycin work on both gram negative and gram positive bacteria. Chloramphenicol inhibits protein chain elongation by interfering with the peptidyl transferase activity of the bacterial ribosome at the 50S ribosomal subunit, that prevents peptide bond formation. Erythromycin also binds at the

The increased population of the world along with availability of global transport means resulted in the advancement of critical health situations that the current treatments cannot manage efficiently (Abdulamir 1). The World Economic Forum (WEF) concludes that, “We live in a bacterial world where we will never be able to stay ahead of the mutation curve. A test of our resilience is how far behind the curve we allow ourselves to fall” (Spellberg, et al.). Antibiotic resistance is truly driven by microbial exposure to all antibiotics whether they are appropriately prescribed or not (Spellberg, et al.). For example, antibiotic resistance was recently discovered among bacteria found in underground caves that had been isolated from the planet’s surface for four million years and was even found in synthetic antibiotics that were nonexistent on earth until the 20th century (Spellberg, et al.). As the cave example shows, antibiotic-resistant infections would prevail even if all antibiotic use was restricted and appropriate, so just restricting prescriptions alone will not suffice. Any more of the typical antibiotics found and even the new antimicrobials currently helping will not effectively fight resistance, for they will eventually be overpowered by the growth of resistance (Roemhild, et al. 945). By considering the evolution