Post by ukbill on Sept 12, 2012 10:21:22 GMT -5
I have been watching the BBC TV Horizon program called " Defeating the Superbugs" about the evolution of MRSA and multiple resistant bacteria.
Having had my life saved from an infection of a Multiple resistant version E.coli by a new antibiotic, I feel closely linked to this problem.
Since the program I have been wondering if we are not missing a simple way to at least reduce this problem.
Thinking in a military way.. how well would our current soldiers stand up to modern weapons if they had only previously come up against muskets?
Our soldiers are constantly evolving their tactics and weapons to counter the possible opposing armies and their weapons.
This is done by changing the way our Armour works and by improving our practice and weapons ourselves.. it is the only way.
So why do we separate our friendly microbe which is producing our chemical weapons (antibiotics) from the protagonist bacteria we need to control?
When we produce an antibiotic we separate the chemical (our weapon) from the host organism (microbe) that has evolved a way to defeat the bacteria in question.
At this point the evolution of our chemical weapon stops.. while the bacteria continues to evolve and hence become resistant to the chemical (antibiotic).
So why do we not take the original host microbe and allow it to continue to evolve alongside its protagonist (the bacteria we wish to kill) while slowly allowing the protagonist to become more immune to the original chemical weapon?
If evolution works as it should, then slightly behind the protagonist our friendly host microbe should evolve and change the structure of the chemical weapon to continue to defeat the protagonist bacteria.. and by so doing provide us with new antibiotics which are not resistant.
Or is this too simple an answer to our problem??
Of course some friendly donor organisms will be defeated by the protagonist bacteria but as in a lot of things strengthening one aspect always has a cost in another way, by evolving to become resistant to one microbes attack our protagonist bacteria could be making itself open to attack from another.
Perhaps even another microbe that until now it was immune to.
Having had my life saved from an infection of a Multiple resistant version E.coli by a new antibiotic, I feel closely linked to this problem.
Since the program I have been wondering if we are not missing a simple way to at least reduce this problem.
Thinking in a military way.. how well would our current soldiers stand up to modern weapons if they had only previously come up against muskets?
Our soldiers are constantly evolving their tactics and weapons to counter the possible opposing armies and their weapons.
This is done by changing the way our Armour works and by improving our practice and weapons ourselves.. it is the only way.
So why do we separate our friendly microbe which is producing our chemical weapons (antibiotics) from the protagonist bacteria we need to control?
When we produce an antibiotic we separate the chemical (our weapon) from the host organism (microbe) that has evolved a way to defeat the bacteria in question.
At this point the evolution of our chemical weapon stops.. while the bacteria continues to evolve and hence become resistant to the chemical (antibiotic).
So why do we not take the original host microbe and allow it to continue to evolve alongside its protagonist (the bacteria we wish to kill) while slowly allowing the protagonist to become more immune to the original chemical weapon?
If evolution works as it should, then slightly behind the protagonist our friendly host microbe should evolve and change the structure of the chemical weapon to continue to defeat the protagonist bacteria.. and by so doing provide us with new antibiotics which are not resistant.
Or is this too simple an answer to our problem??
Of course some friendly donor organisms will be defeated by the protagonist bacteria but as in a lot of things strengthening one aspect always has a cost in another way, by evolving to become resistant to one microbes attack our protagonist bacteria could be making itself open to attack from another.
Perhaps even another microbe that until now it was immune to.