Search results for "antibiotic resistance"
showing 10 items of 243 documents
Adapting to a Global Health Challenge: Managing Antimicrobial Resistance in the Nordics
2020
This article explores the adaptation of Norway and Sweden to one of the major challenges to global public health, antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Guided by assumptions derived from institutional theory, the article investigates whether, and, if so, how the AMR problem has affected the two Nordic countries’ administrative systems and frameworks for Nordic cooperation. The article builds on selected literature, expert interviews, and public documents. The findings suggest that the international impact on Norway and Sweden’s managerial adaptation to AMR is limited. Instead, adaptation takes place through incremental change within existing structures for disease prevention and control and follo…
Targeting antibiotic resistant bacteria with phages reduces bacterial density in an insect host
2018
Phage therapy is attracting growing interest among clinicians as antibiotic resistance continues becoming harder to control. However, clinical trials and animal model studies on bacteriophage treatment are still scarce and results on the efficacy vary. Recent research suggests that using traditional antimicrobials in concert with phage could have desirable synergistic effects that hinder the evolution of resistance. Here, we present a novel insect gut model to study phage-antibiotic interaction in a system where antibiotic resistance initially exists in very low frequency and phage specifically targets the resistance bearing cells. We demonstrate that while phage therapy could not reduce th…
Midbiotics : conjugative plasmids for genetic engineering of natural gut flora
2019
ABSTRACTThe possibility to modify gut bacterial flora has become an important goal, and various approaches are used to achieve desirable communities. However, the genetic engineering of existing microbes in the gut, which are already compatible with the rest of the community and host immune system, has not received much attention. Here, we discuss and experimentally evaluate the possibility to use modified and mobilizable CRISPR-Cas9-endocing plasmid as a tool to induce changes in bacterial communities. This plasmid system (briefly midbiotic) is delivered from bacterial vector into target bacteria via conjugation. Compared to, for example, bacteriophage-based applications, the benefits of c…
Preceding Host History of Conjugative Resistance Plasmids Affects Intra- and Interspecific Transfer Potential from Biofilm
2023
Conjugative plasmids can confer antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to their host bacterium. The plasmids disperse even between distantly related host species, rescuing the host from otherwise detrimental effects of antibiotics. Little is known about the role of these plasmids in the spread of AMR during antibiotic treatment. One unstudied question is whether the past evolutionary history of a plasmid in a particular species creates host specificity in its rescue potential or if interspecific coevolution can improve interspecific rescues. To study this, we coevolved the plasmid RP4 under three different host settings; solely Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae, or alternating between both …
An Updated Review on the Synthesis and Antibacterial Activity of Molecular Hybrids and Conjugates Bearing Imidazole Moiety
2020
The rapid growth of serious infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, especially the nosocomial ESKAPE pathogens, has been acknowledged by Governments and scientists and is one of the world’s major health problems. Various strategies have been and are currently investigated and developed to reduce and/or delay the bacterial resistance. One of these strategies regards the design and development of antimicrobial hybrids and conjugates. This unprecedented critical review, in which our continuing interest in the synthesis and evaluation of the bioactivity of imidazole derivatives is testified, aims to summarise and comment on the results obtained from the end of the 1900s until Februa…
Interkingdom Gut Microbiome and Resistome of the Cockroach Blattella germanica
2021
Cockroaches are intriguing animals with two coexisting symbiotic systems, an endosymbiont in the fat body, involved in nitrogen metabolism, and a gut microbiome whose diversity, complexity, role, and developmental dynamics have not been fully elucidated. In this work, we present a metagenomic approach to study Blattella germanica populations not treated, treated with kanamycin, and recovered after treatment, both naturally and by adding feces to the diet, with the aim of better understanding the structure and function of its gut microbiome along the development as well as the characterization of its resistome.
Small things matter : of phages and antibiotic resistance conferring plasmids
2016
Viruses and plasmids are small units of genetic material dependent on cells either transiently or continuously. Intriguingly, stories of these small entities intertwine in antibiotic resistance crisis. Horizontal gene transfer enables bacteria to respond rapidly to chances in their environment. Anthropogenic consumption of antibiotics induces the travel of resistance encoding genes mainly as passengers of conjugative plasmids. In this thesis, I demonstrate that clinically important resistance plasmids could evolutionarily rescue susceptible bacteria under lethal antibiotic concentrations. If mobile resistance genes are available in surrounding community, administration of high doses of anti…
Counteracting the horizontal spread of bacterial antibiotic resistance with conjugative plasmid-dependent bacteriophages
2016
Data from: Conjugation is necessary for a bacterial plasmid to survive under protozoan predation
2016
Horizontal gene transfer by conjugative plasmids plays a critical role in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Interactions between bacteria and other organisms can affect the persistence and spread of conjugative plasmids. Here we show that protozoan predation increased the persistence and spread of the antibiotic resistance plasmid RP4 in populations of the opportunist bacterial pathogen Serratia marcescens. A conjugation-defective mutant plasmid was unable to survive under predation, suggesting that conjugative transfer is required for plasmid persistence under the realistic condition of predation. These results indicate that multi-trophic interactions can affect the maintenance of co…
Un ecosistema malalt: la lluita contra la resistència a antibiòtics des d’una perspectiva global
2013
La produccio antropogenica d'antibiotics ha provocat una malaltia dels ecosistemes microbians de dimensio planetaria, la repercussio mes immediata de la qual per a l'home es la intractabilitat de les infeccions. La comprensio del fenomen i les possibilitats d'intervencio requereixen nous metodes conceptuals, analitics i tecnologics.