Antibiotic Resistent Organisms Flashcards
What 4 factors contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance?
- Misuse and overuse of antibx
- Hospital environment
- Food
- No new antibx on the horison
Explain why misuse and overuse of antibx causes AROs?
- Incorrect prescribing (UTI)
- Too low of a dose
- Treatment too short
- Patient error (non-adherence/sharing)
- Agricultural use in livestock
- Over-availablility
- Manufacturing plants leaching
Explain why the hospital environemnt can cause AROs?
- Large amount of immunicompromised people
- Close pt proximinity
- Invasive procedures
- Teaching hospitals have the sickes and highest acuity patients
Explain how food causes AROs?
- More meals are consumed outside the home (easier spread)
- Contamination of food source with pathogens (ie: melons and recall)
Explain how lack of new antibx contributes to AROs?
- No new pathways to tackling bacteria as there is no particular financial gain
What is drug resistence?
An adaptive response in which microorganisms beging to toelrate an amount of antibx that would normally inhibit or kill it
What is the ability to resist antibx due to?
Genetic versatility and adaptablity of the microbial population
What are the two types of ARO resistence?
- Inherent (natural) resistnace
- Aquired resistence
Explain inherent resistance
Bacteria may be naturally resistant due to structural advantage
Can also be called “insensitivity” since it occurs in organisms that have never before been suspectible to that dtug
Ex: Gram - bacteria are immune to vano
Ex: Microplasm have no cell wall so no antbiotic that targets cell wall will work
Knowledge of the intrinsic resistance of a pathogen is of great importance to clinicians?
Avoid prescribing inappropaite or ineffective therapies
What is aquired resistence?
When bacteria become resistent to antibx due to vertical gene transfer or horizontal gene transfer
Describe vertical gene transfer
- Spontanous mutation happens that results in resistence
- Resistence advantage is then tranferred directly to its offspring
- Bacteria have fast growth rate so this change gets passed on quick
** Is an example of natural selection*
Define horizontal gene transfer?
DNA is transfered between indivddual bacteria of the same species (staph aureus to staph aureus) or even different species (enterococcus facieals to staph aureus)
What 3 methods can horizontal gene transfer occur?
- Conjugation
- Transformation
- Transduction
Explain conjugation in horizontal gene transfer
This process is mediated by a plasmid, a part of DNA that replicates independently
It occurs when there is a direct contact between 2 bacterias and facilitated by a hollow bridge called sex pillus that forms to allow plasmids to transfer between bacterias
Genes for ARO or virulence (toxicity, enzymes, adhesion molecules) can be transferred