A study reveals: This is what makes antibiotics lose their effectiveness!

 As more bacteria develop resistance to the drugs designed to kill them, a new study finds that even a relatively new antibiotic isn't immune. According to what was published by New Atlas, citing the journal PLOS Biology.

Gene amplification mechanism

The new study, conducted by researchers at the Free University of Berlin, found that despite the novelty of the antibiotic alicidin, common bacteria are already developing resistance using a gene amplification mechanism, although the new antibiotic has a different mode of action than other antibiotics. Known as a peptide antibiotic, it inhibits DNA replication, the essential enzymes that help advance bacterial DNA replication. DNA gyrase enzymes are found in bacteria, not people, which makes them a good target.

coli and salmonella

The researchers used a wide range of tools to examine the mechanisms by which bacteria become resistant to apicidin, including RNA sequencing, protein analysis, X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling. They found that two bacteria commonly associated with infection in humans, E. coli and Salmonella, developed resistance to apicidin when exposed to increasingly higher concentrations of the drug.

1000 times resistance

They discovered that the source of the resistance was an increase in the number of copies of the STM3175 gene in bacterial cells, which were amplified in successive generations as the cells multiplied, developing resistance up to 1,000-fold. The gene encodes a protein that interacts with pericidin and protects bacteria from it.

The researchers also discovered that the same resistance mechanism was circulating among harmless, pathogenic bacteria, including Vibrio vulnificus, which can cause life-threatening wound infections, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia and blood infections after surgery.

1.27 million deaths

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public healthcare concern and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. A 2019 article in The Lancet reported that 1.27 million deaths were attributed to antimicrobial resistance during that year.

The results of the current study provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying antibiotic resistance of bacteria and could help in the development of apicidine-based antibiotic therapies.