Super Bugs

Superbug Apocalypse

Introduction

It is well known that in the 21ts century, medicine in particular antibiotics, has helped saved the lives of millions. Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight bacterial infections. Used properly, antibiotics save lives. However as antibiotic resistance increases, the rise of super bugs such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus becomes more apparent. That is why it is important to carefully follow the instructions given to you when prescribed antibiotics. The feature of this article will be antibiotics as well as Antibiotic resistance. The article will also talk about correct usage and doctor over use and abuse. Intended for the understanding of the article, bacteria and super bugs will also be discussed.

Bacteria-Super bugs

Bacteria are tiny living microorganisms - they are neither plants nor animals but belong to a group all by themselves called prokaryotes, which simply means they do not possess a nuclear membrane, nor do they have membrane-bound organelles (BioZone 2011).Bacteria are tiny single-cell microorganisms, usually a few micrometres in length that normally exist together in millions. It has been shown, that bacteria were among the first forms of life to appear on Earth millions of years ago, and are present in most habitats, such as soil, water, acidic hot spring or even radioactive waste (Stoppler, 2014). Bacteria also have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres, to rods and spirals (Stoppler, 2014). An example of a spherical shape bacterium would be Staphylococcus aureus (fig1)
Everybody has a variety of bacteria on their skin. About half the adult population carry (either on their skin or in the nose or mouth) bacteria call Staphylococcus aureus (often referred to as ‘Staph’ or ‘Golden Staph’). There are many different strains of Staph and most of the time it lives and reproduces on the body without causing any problem (DR Stoppler, 2014). However under some circumstances, it can get inside the body through broken skin and cause an infection that require treatment with antibiotics.
Yet some strains of Staphylococcus aureus are difficult to treat as they have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as, Methicillin. When resistance occurs, it is labelled as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a super bug (Stoppler, 2014).However, there is still hope, even though the bacteria are resistance, antibiotics can be helpful.

Antibiotics

Alexander Fleming was working at St. Mary's Hospital in London in 1928, he observed that a plate of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mould (fungus) which dissolved the bacteria growing (richman,2014). Curious, Alexander Fleming regrew the mould and found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria (richman ,2014), which soon was known as an antibiotic. An antibiotic is a selective poison, been selected so that it will kill the desired bacteria, but not the other cells in your body. Each type of antibiotic affects different bacteria in different ways.
An example of this would be penicillin. Penicillin works by damaging and penetrating the cell walls of the bacteria, consequently killing the bacterial cell, which Alexander Fleming observed (richman,2014). Another example would be affecting the bacterias ability to turn glucose into energy, when this happens; the bacterium dies instead of reproducing (richman,2014).
However the use of fungi, such as penicillin is not an unusual phenomenon, and has long been known since the ancient Egyptians, who dressed infected wounds with mouldy bread. (Spellberg D, 2014). It was not until 1928 that penicillin (mould), became the first true antibiotic. However, Antibiotics can stop working because a bacterium comes up with various ways of countering penicillin and other antibiotics. This is called antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance enables the survival of bacteria when it is exposed to one or more antibiotics. (Chan,2014). An example of this is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is known to cause serious health problems. Resistance typically occurs in various ways. These include, preventing the antibiotic getting to its desired target, this is done by more often than not, when bacteria changes it permeability of their membrane, making it difficult for antibodies to enter the bacterium cell through channels available for the drug to diffuse through. Another strategy imposed would be creating the molecular equivalent of a club bouncer to escort antibiotics out the door if it gets in, some bacteria do this by using energy from ATP which is Adenosine triphosphate(ATP) a biochemical way to store and use energy, to power pumps that shoot antibiotics out of the cell. (Freudenrich,2014). Many antibiotics also work by sticking to their target and preventing it from interacting with other molecules inside the cell, this is done by changing the structure of the target so that the antibiotic can no longer recognize it or bind to it, (Freudenrich,2014). Finally, destroying the antibiotic completely, this is an extreme tactic used by bacterial cells. The bacterial cell produces an enzyme that literally eats antibiotics; an example of this would be Golden Staph, which produces beta-lactamases that chew up penicillin (Freudenrich,2014).

As antimicrobial resistance is increasing, the development of new antimicrobial agents unfortunately is declining. Only a few new antimicrobial agents have been developed in recent years, for example, silver (collins, 2014). Like werewolves and vampires, bacteria have a weakness to silver. The precious metal has been used to fight infection for thousands of years, first being described of its antimicrobial properties in 400 BC, but how it has worked has been a mystery (Spellberg , 2014). Recently however a team led by James Collins, a biomedical engineer at Boston University in Massachusetts, has described how silver can disrupt bacteria. The silver interrupts the bacteria’s cell's affecting it ability to form the chemical Sulfer bonds essential to its survival. These bonds produce the cells physical structure so when bacteria meets silver it literally falls apart (James.j.collins, 2014) The silver works by sticking to the common component in most proteins, Sulfer. These Sulfur groups normally bond to each other in proteins, holding them together and keeping the protein folded up in its correct shape. But if silver interacts with Sulfur then the protein cannot fold correctly, and thus it cannot do its job.
This innovative way of ancient treatments could help to deal with the future disaster of antibiotic resistance. Meanwhile, the message about the dangers of overusing antibiotics seems to be less acknowledged. A study that was published in June 19, 2002, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that office-based doctors wrote 32% more prescriptions for antibiotics for common colds.

Over Prescription

Antibiotic misuse, sometimes called antibiotic abuse refers to the overuse of antibiotics, with the potential to cause serious health effects (Finland, 2014). It is a major contributing factor to the development of antibiotic resistance, including the creation of multi-drug resistance bacteria formally called "super bugs”. After reading about super bugs and antibiotic-resistant and bacteria, you may think prescriptions for unnecessary antibiotics is relatively uncommon, especially for small problems. However, new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston suggests the opposite. Dr. Michael L. Barnett, lead author, and Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, senior author, found that prescriptions of antibiotics for sore throat and acute bronchitis are far more common than they should be, leading to the influx of antibiotic resistance.
“Many doctors believe that by giving an antibiotic they might be doing some good, or at least covering the possibility of a missed diagnosis of a significant bacterial disease”- Douglas Fleming ( A member of the specialist advisory community on antimicrobial resistance). As doctors are usually pressed for time, an unable to have long conversations with a patient explaining why antibiotics aren’t necessary, they generally just write the prescription. With the lack of knowledge given to the patients about antibiotics and the correct usage for them, prescription doses are usually done incorrectly, leading to the bacterium becoming resistant. It is clear, that over prescription of antibiotics from doctors can have serious health problems, largely antibiotic resistance.

Conclusion

Antibiotics have always been considered one of the wonderful discoveries of the 20th century. This is true, but the real wonder is the rise of antibiotic resistance. It is evident that with the overuse of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance, and super bugs, and it will soon no longer be possible to use the basic antibiotics of bacterial mould. Thankfully new techniques are already in play as researchers such as James Collins experiment with silvers ability to disrupt Sulfer particles. However this innovative way will soon be discontinued as resistance increases due to, doctor incompetence or the incompetence of the patients.