{"id":2571,"date":"2016-04-11T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T06:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&p=2571"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:26:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:26:26","slug":"australian-researchers-reset-superbugs-to-pre-antibiotic-resistant-state","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/australian-researchers-reset-superbugs-to-pre-antibiotic-resistant-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian researchers \u2018reset\u2019 superbugs to pre-antibiotic resistant state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medical researchers from The Westmead Institute are investigating a new way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacterial \u201csuperbugs\u201d by genetically manipulating the stubborn bacteria to be susceptible to drugs again.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Bacteria
Bacteria – Prokaryote Cell Anatomy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

The promising technique could give hope to a global health system increasingly threatened by the growing inability of medicine to treat serious bacterial infections.<\/p>\n

Some bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic through genetic mutations which produce potent chemicals that inactivate the drug. In other cases the bacteria eliminates the cell target that the antibiotic attacks.<\/p>\n

Westmead Institute researchers are fighting back by using \u2018therapeutic plasmids\u2019 \u2013 specially constructed DNA molecules \u2013 to displace the antibiotic-resistant genes in the bacteria.<\/p>\n

A plasmid is a type of genetic material in bacteria which replicates independently and can be transferred from host to host. This is bad news for humans when it comes to super strains of bacteria such as\u00a0E. coli<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Klebseilla<\/em>, which are responsible for disease outbreaks around the world.<\/p>\n

But the researchers – who are funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council –\u00a0have turned this replication mechanism to their advantage by introducing a competitor plasmid onto the scene.<\/p>\n

According to the Institute\u2019s Critical Infection Group leader and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Westmead Hospital, Professor Jon Iredell, while the therapy is not a complete cure to antibiotic resistance, it is capable of ridding the real and emerging threat of antibiotic resistant gene-sharing gut bacteria.<\/p>\n

This has been identified by the World Health Organisation as one of its top health priorities worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, our therapy is a way of changing \u2018bad\u2019 (antibiotic resistant) bacteria into \u2018good\u2019 (antibiotic-sensitive) bacteria,\u201d says Professor Iredell.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, our therapy is a way of changing \u2018bad\u2019 (antibiotic resistant) bacteria into \u2018good\u2019 (antibiotic-sensitive) bacteria,\u201d says Professor Iredell.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe have already demonstrated in a mouse model that there is a way to manipulate these stubborn bacteria without killing them that allows them to become normally susceptible to antibiotics again, taking us back to where we were before antibiotic resistance became a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers administered the therapeutic plasmids orally to the mice. Once ingested, these \u2018good\u2019 plasmids competed with the antibiotic resistant plasmids, leaving the mice with bacteria that were susceptible to antibiotics again.\u00a0The Research Council grant will allow the team to extend this idea and develop applications in humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve shown that, just by feeding them a little bit of what is essentially the equivalent of yogurt, these bad plasmids are removed from the gut bacteria \u2013 gone permanently. It\u2019s a system reset,\u201d says Professor Iredell.<\/p>\n

The next step for the researchers will be to replicate their findings in clinical trials but Professor Iredell says they are already part of the way there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already identified the types of problem plasmids that exist in people \u2013 we routinely look for these things. But at the moment, all we do is essentially isolate them and wait. If they develop into nasty infections our current approach is to enter the antibiotics arms race and cross our fingers.”<\/p>\n

Professor Iredell says the therapy is completely safe and removes the need for high-powered antibiotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t disrupt your ecosystem in the way that all of our other approaches do, and it doesn\u2019t select for a whole bunch of new antibiotic resistance, which is the problem with the continuing escalation \u2013 the arms race \u2013 between antibiotics and bacteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s clearly an urgent need to identify strategies for dealing\u00a0with antibiotic resistance, and this is the only positive approach to antibiotic resistance at the moment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s clearly an urgent need to identify strategies for dealing\u00a0with antibiotic resistance, and this is the only positive approach to antibiotic resistance at the moment,\u201d he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medical researchers from The Westmead Institute are investigating a new way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacterial \u201csuperbugs\u201d by genetically manipulating the stubborn bacteria to be susceptible to drugs again. The promising technique could give hope to a global health system increasingly threatened by the growing inability of medicine to treat serious bacterial infections. Some bacteria become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2572,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2571","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}