New side effect of antibiotic drugs discovered
07.02.2017 18:41
Researchers from the University of Exeter have discovered a new
side effect of
antibiotics. The scientists found that antibiotic drugs accelerate the
growth of bacteria. The results of the research were published in Nature
Ecology & Evolution journal.
The experts experimented with
E. coli and
doxycycline antibiotic drug from the tetracycline group, which inhibit
protein biosynthesis in bacterial cells. E. coli, when exposed to
doxycycline, predictably became resistant to the antibiotic. However,
the bacteria started growing faster, and their colonies became three
times larger than the colonies of the bacteria that were not exposed to
doxycycline. The ability to accelerate their growth was preserved even
after the antibiotic was removed from the culture medium.
The
reason behind the phenomenon is about molecular and genetic tricks.
According to Science and Life magazine, the authors of the research
managed to find two areas of the genome of doxycycline-resistant E.
coli, in which major changes took place. First, the bacteria obtained
additional molecular pumps that would suck the antibiotic out of the
cell.
Secondly, the pieces corresponding to the "sleeping" virus
disappeared from the genome of E. coli. Many viruses can embed
themselves into the DNA of the host and stay there, passing from
generation to generation, while staying inactive.
Antibiotic drugs can
also be powerless. In 2016, there was the first incident recorded when a
person died from a microbe that was resistant to the action of almost
all antibiotics. A 70-year-old citizen of the United States, returned
home in August 2016 from a long trip to India. The woman was soon
hospitalized with a "systemic inflammation syndrome," which, apparently,
was associated with an infection in the patient's right hip. The woman
developed sepsis and died in early September.
The bacteria that
was found in the tissue samples of the dead woman is not new to science.
However, the bacretia's new strain that killed the woman, proved to be
resistant to all known antimicrobials.
Pravda.Ru
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