Antibiotic resistance

Question 1

What is antibiotic resistance?

Answer 1

the ability for an organism to avoid being killed/inhibited by an antibacterial agent at drug concs achievable in body after normal dosage

Question 2

What human behaviours lead to antibiotic resistance?

Answer 2

-over prescription of antibiotic (no diagnoses/misdiagnoses before antibiotic given)
-over the counter sales of antibiotics (bought without prescription)
-improper use by patients
-over use in agriculture (eg. to promote growth)
-spread from agriculture to humans (consumption, direct contact, enviro)

Question 3

Which innate (natural) properties make bacteria resistant?

Answer 3

-lack target (eg. Chlamydia has no peptidoglycan so is resistant to beta lactams)
-impermeable to antibiotic (typically gram -ve bc of outer membr)

Question 4

Which acquired properties make bacteria resistant?

Answer 4

-altered drug target (eg. point mutations in DNA gyrase)
-reduced uptake (outer membr porins)
-efflux systems (eg. multidrug resistance exporters in E.coli)
-drug inactivation (eg. hydrolyses or oxidises drug)

Question 5

How do bacteria acquire resistant properties?

Answer 5

-point mutations (eg. in DNA gyrase, the target of fluoroquinolones)
-gain new genetic material via transduction (phage), transformation (linear DNA) or conjugation (direct DNA transfer between cells)

Question 6

How does the introduction of vaccines combat drug resistance?

Answer 6

-reduces number of bacterial infections that require antibiotics
-reduces number of resistant infections
-reduces number of viral infections that antibiotics are unnecessarily given to

Question 7

How can antibiotic resistance be tackled in the future?

Answer 7

-developing drugs (screening, altering, designing drugs)
-developing vaccines (reduces need for antibiotics)
-improving diagnostics (fast, cheap, given at point of care -deal with infections quicker and relevantly, eg. identifying type of pathogen and whether antibiotic needed)