3. Molecular Mechanisms That Confer Antibacterial Drug Resistance And Development Of New Antibiotics To Circumvent Resistance Flashcards
What are the three classes of antibiotic resistant pathogens that are a major threat to human health?
- MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus arreus
- Drug resistant gram negative bacteria
- Drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis
What is MSRA?
How 80% staph infections are resistant to penicillin , and around 19000 deaths/per year are due to MRSA
Example of drug resistant gram negative bacteria?
Klebsielle pneumoniae
What is drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis?
The leading cause of death from infectious disease
What are increased antibiotic resistance correlated with?
Increased antibiotic use (eg 1.4 million kg of antimicrobial drugs annually- 1/2 inappropriately prescribed)
How many antimicrobial drugs are used in animal feeds/year?
14 million kg
What are the two types of resistance to antibiotics?
- Inherent “natural” resistance
2. Acquired resistance
Examples of inherent resistance?
Inaccessibility of antibiotic
Extrusion of antibiotic genes- found in bacterial chromosomes
Describe acquired resistance?
Previously susceptible
Resistance in sub populations or strains of bacterial species
Two types of ways to acquire resistance?
- Vertical gene transfer
2. Horizontal gene transfer
What is vertical gene transfer?
The transfer of spontaneous resistance gene mutations in the bacterial chromosome to bacterial progeny during DNA replication
What is the speed of vertical gene transfer resistance like?
Fast, despite mutation being a rare event, the fast growth of bacteria and absolute number of cells attained means it’s fast- spontaneous mutation frequency for antibiotic resistance is 10^-8 -10^-9
What is the process of vertical gene transfer a matter of?
Darwinian evolution driven by natural selection (in a selective environment of the antibiotic, the wild type are killed while resistant can grow and flourish
What is horizontal gene transfer?
Genetic material contained in small packets of DNA can be transferred between individual bacteria of the same species or even between different species
Three mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer?
- Conjugation
- Transduction
- Transformation
What is the main mechanism of horizontal gene transfer?
Conjugation
What is conjugation?
Transmission of resistance genes following direct contact between two bacteria via pilus (like a bridge)
What are the key players in conjugation and what do they do?
Plasmids, located in the cytoplasm of the donor and recipient cell and exchange through the pilus