In a world of continuing antibiotic resistance do we to resurrect another approach to kill dangerous bacteria? I recently read an article on how many bacteria can live on antibiotic compounds as their source for carbon (Antibiotics For A Meal). Antibiotics have improved the lives of many humans, but maybe we need another main stream approach to fighting infection? Science Friday covered using bacteriophages (Phages Fight Bacteria) as an approach to fighting these bugs. There is something interesting to me about infecting the infection in a human for the battle of health. There is this benefit of specificity that comes along with using bacteriophages that does not seem to be present with typical antibiotics. Have a read and a listen… this is a good mix of chemistry and biology.
Antibiotic Resistance
Published April 7, 2008 Science in General 2 CommentsTags: antibiotics, bacteria, biology, chemistry
Antibiotic resistance always reminds me of Godel, Escher, Bach. No matter how powerful the theorem-proving system, Godel’s theorem insists that there are unprovable true statements expressible in the system. GEB’s author used the analogy of a record that produced a sound that would destroy the record player used to play it.
Maybe biological countermeasures are ultimately doomed by the same limitation. There are, after all, genes for bacteriophage resistance. Nevertheless, it may still be a better technique, even if we do have to constantly tweak the phages to have them remain effective.
Regardless of the method, it MUST destroy 100% of the unwanted bacteria in a person’s system. Otherwise, the principle of natural selection infers that any of the surviving bacteria, which were genetically suited to resist your countermeasures, would only live to produce a new generation of even more resilient offspring than you previously had. It’s better to work with the natural functions of the human immune system than to impose an arbitrary solution (i.e. force it; a natural but often destructive human response).