Hot Topics in Science: Our Review of 2015 (3/5)
16th December 2015 - Last modified 28th November 2023
Hot Topic #3: Averting the Antibiotics Apocalypse.
While the newspapers frequently report on the doom and gloom of antibiotic resistance, and how we are set to enter into an antibiotic apocalypse in the next few years, I like to look on the positive side and trust in science. Here are two alternative strategies that I’ve read about this year:
Predatory bacteria
A lot of work is being carried out on the Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. Found in soil, this predatory bacteria attacks its prey from the inside, and a paper published in Nature Communications just last week has shed light on how it protects itself from its own weapons.1 Work such as this is paving the way towards its use in the future, for example ensuring these properties cannot be easily transmitted to pathogenic bacteria.
Bacteriocins
Protein-based toxins are produced by bacteria to wipe out neighbouring strains. The best part is, being proteins they can be engineered for precise targeting, picking out pathogenic bacteria amongst the populations of beneficial species. A paper in Nature this October demonstrated how these bacteria might be used in the gut against multidrug-resistant bacteria.2
Of course, we shouldn’t rely on innovations alone, and these approaches must also be balanced with higher levels of restraint in the healthcare and animal husbandry settings.
References:
- 1 Lambert C. (2015). Ankyrin-mediated self-protection during cell invasion by the bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. Nature communications, 6 (doi:10.1038/ncomms9884)
- 2 Kommineni, S. et al. (2015). Bacteriocin production augments niche competition by enterococci in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. Nature 526, 719–722 (doi:10.1038/nature15524)
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