2023-10-19 09:29:36
Investigating how antimicrobial resistance works and educating health professionals about the appropriate use of these drugs to stop the formation of more drug-resistant infections are challenges that research is currently facing.
Antimicrobial-resistant infections are becoming more common. They range from skin infections due to the bacteria staphylococcus (staphylococcus), to sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea, to multiple diseases caused by the bacteria. Klebsiella pneumoniae , including pneumonia. When an infection does not respond to therapeutic treatment, it can spread throughout the body.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) primarily begins when bacteria and viruses living in the body, skin, and environment learn to avoid antibiotics and antivirals. This affects the entire healthcare landscape. It causes infections that lead to hospitalization, can worsen the condition of someone already in the hospital, and can be fatal for people with compromised immune systems, such as children and the elderly, with cancer, organ transplants, among others.
“It is a slowly advancing catastrophe.”“, stressed, in this regard, David van Duin, professor of infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine (SOM). ““People are just starting to accept that antimicrobial resistance is getting worse, but it is an existential threat to everything we do in medicine.”.
Need for a multidisciplinary approach
Solutions to what are known as “superbugs” will require a multidisciplinary approach due to their wide-ranging effects. The main goal is to investigate how AMR works and educate healthcare professionals on the proper use of antibiotics to stop the formation of more drug-resistant infections.
Van Duin is part of a project from the Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases (USA) to collaborate with researchers across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus to focus on key areas: providing new guidance on antibiotic use; reduce the spread of infections by developing better health infrastructure and practicing personal hygiene; and learn to better identify ADR to inform treatment.
Another important risk factor is the Earth’s changing climate. Bacteria and viruses grow faster and stronger in warmer temperatures. And natural disasters lead to unsanitary conditions and increased pollution, exposing people to more potential superbugs. Monitoring AMR after events such as hurricanes or earthquakes presents another opportunity to obtain information, from the point of view of these researchers. Researchers have discovered, in this regard, that in all countries, antimicrobial resistance has a greater presence in areas with fewer resources.
New treatments
In this field, Brian Conlon and his laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of SOM (USA) are focused on alternative strategies to treat infections with existing antibiotics. It aims to make previously ineffective treatments work better by manipulating how the treatment is delivered at the microbial level and reversing antimicrobial resistance by tricking bacteria into responding to the medication.
They are also studying how diabetes, which affects more than a tenth of the population, affects treatment. “There is evidence in mouse models that antibiotics are less effective when diabetes is present, which is concerning because diabetes is increasingly prevalent in the US.“says Conlon. The challenge for Conlon is to find a way to completely eliminate a drug-resistant pathogen from a patient’s body, but with current treatments, he believes “that is almost impossible.” “Sometimes the culprit is a person’s own immune system.”“concludes. J.S.LL. (SyM)
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