Resisting resistance
If bugs, bacteria and viruses ruled the world, there’s no doubt they would run it like an exclusive club with the motto- resist at all cost. The clubhouse rules would include all sorts of strategies to make sure that members remained undisturbed.
But Dr. Marc Ouellette of Laval University, a specialist in infectious diseases, has made it his mission to decode and break these rules. He wants to guarantee that antibiotics remain effective and that bugs are kept in check.
“In many cases, we are at the last drug, we’re only one step ahead of these rapidly-mutating pathogens,” he notes with some concern.
Bugs and viruses, known as pathogens, have a huge set of tools they can use to thwart efforts to get rid of them.
For example, a pathogen like bacteria can mutate itself so that antibiotics can’t get inside its cells and kill it, sort of like changing the locks on the front door. Suppose the drug finds its way into the cell? No problem, the bug will find a way to spit it back out.
The club has other rules that apply when the drug gets in and the members can’t get it out – they create a special enzyme that can literally chop the drug molecules in half. And even if the drug cannot be spit out or chopped up, clever bugs have been known to simply multiply, ensuring that the drug can never fully eliminate the infection.
“Often it’s a combination of these different factors that help create resistance. We’ve been working to understand how all of this works so that we can combat these resistance mechanisms,” he says.
Dr. Ouellette has also been involved in work to test new infection fighting alternatives to antibiotics, research supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He points out that, not only are pathogens really good at making themselves resistant, there are virtually no new antibiotics currently being developed. No company wants to spend money on a product that will become quickly obsolete. “We need to convince the private sector that it still makes sense for industry to be active here.”
Bugs, viruses and bacteria – it’s a never-ending game of deception and evasion. Dr. Ouellette is trying to keep humans ahead of the pathogens.
Credit: http://www.newscanada.com
