polar_pilot t1_ivsgh68 wrote on November 10, 2022 at 7:22 AM

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

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?

tonymmorley OP t1_ivsgqge wrote on November 10, 2022 at 7:26 AM

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.

[deleted] t1_ivsq5lz wrote on November 10, 2022 at 9:38 AM

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?

grapescottingson t1_ivt02s2 wrote on November 10, 2022 at 11:50 AM

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

banana_pirate t1_iw4on3c wrote on November 12, 2022 at 10:59 PM

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.

LegitPancak3 t1_ivu7uye wrote on November 10, 2022 at 5:21 PM

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.