Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

tonymmorley OP t1_ivsgqge wrote

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

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.

13

[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?

2

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.

2

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.

1