Undermining Antibiotic Resistance
A growing
problem is the resistance of bacteria to antibiotic treatments. Researchers
have increased their scrutiny of the mechanisms that allow the culprits
to escape medicine’s defense system, wreaking havoc with patients’ health.
Their latest
investigation has revealed one of the microbes’ weapons. It is a protein
called SdiA, which appears to have at least two jobs. One is to help carry
messages between bacterial cells; the other, to shield bacteria from drugs
aimed to destroy them
The greater
the cell’s production of the protein, the more potent its resistance to
antibiotics, including Cipro (ciprofloxacin) and its relatives, said Dr.
Lynn Zechiedrich, assistant professor of molecular virology and microbiology
at the Baylor College of Medicnie in Texas and lead author of the paper
in the journal Molecular Microbiology.
In the past
five years the resistance of infections to antibiotics such as the fluoroquinolones,
to which Cipro belongs, has increased three-fold, from 10 percent to some
30 percent. "
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