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TehOwn t1_ivse2sb wrote

Reply to comment by tonymmorley in New antibiotic passes through the first phase of clinical trials with ease by tonymmorley

What's to stop the bacteria from developing resistance to this new antibiotic?

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tonymmorley OP t1_ivsebqi wrote

Nothing, the war never ends. It's a litral arms race, but failure to continue winning would kill hundreds of millions. Check out the video "watch this" linked in the pinned comment.

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TehOwn t1_ivseqtx wrote

I'll definitely watch it later. I may have seen it already, I love some Kurzgesagt, but I'll refresh my memory. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for the award! I wish I could reciprocate!

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polar_pilot t1_ivsgh68 wrote

Hypothetically, say we keep developing new antibiotics. Could a bacteria evolve resistance to all of them? Or would resisting one antibiotic make them vulnerable to a different one?

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tonymmorley OP t1_ivsgqge wrote

Unlikely and maybe. Antibodies are like keys not bombs, they kill in very a specific and targeted manner. It would be difficult but not impossible to evolve blanket immunity. But some bacteria are multi-resistant. Check out the "watch this" link for more information.

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[deleted] t1_ivsq5lz wrote

Would they be able to develop resistance to phages as well, or is that the actual holy grail of antibacterial treatment it's made out to be?

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grapescottingson t1_ivt02s2 wrote

Phages have the benefit of co-evolving with their prey so I would hope that they would be a more resilient treatment strategy.

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banana_pirate t1_iw4on3c wrote

Fun thing is that developing resistance against viruses and chemicals are some what opposed to each other.

As such you notice that bacteria resistant to antibiotics become more vulnerable to antibiotics as they become more resistant to viruses.

It likely has to do with antibiotic resistance often using a mechanism that pumps the drug out of the cell, whereas virus resistance requires not presenting proteins on their surface. The pumps are proteins, so you can't have both.

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LegitPancak3 t1_ivu7uye wrote

The thing is developing resistance to an antibiotic often forces the bacteria to give up something that is typically important to it, such as survival in certain environments or factors that make it more immunogenic. Not long after an antibiotic is taken off the common administration protocols, the bugs want those factors back ASAP, and will readily revert the mutation. So smart administration and rotation of antibiotics could ensure that we always have effective treatments.

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gregorydgraham t1_ivsltcm wrote

Nothing but each antibiotic resistance has a cost to the bacteria, so hopefully eventually we’ll have enough different antibiotics that no bacteria can afford to be resistant to all of them

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Taeryr t1_ivseg0n wrote

Proper antibiotic prescriptions and following through with courses to completion. We are more strict than we used to be which helps but eventually there will be new resistance. It also adds one more to a long line to deal with other resistant strains, as most are resistant to some but not all antibiotics.

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