
Researchers reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics - ca98am79
http://www.kurzweilai.net/researchers-reverse-bacterial-resistance-to-antibiotics?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=25c9e284af-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-25c9e284af-281895037
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vmarsy
Pretty interesting!

tldr: Instead of trying a random sequence of antibiotics, the authors present
"a precise, ordered schedule of antibiotics that doctors could rely on and
know that in the end, resistance will be reversed, and an antibiotic will
work"

That optimal scheduling is found using the probability of mutations of the
bacteria

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terravion
This rotation of mechanisms of action to undo resistance is already widely
practiced in agriculture with pesticides. It is part of the reason why organic
agriculture and its heavy use of pesticides with low rotation is so
problematic.

(In the crops I work most in, organic farmers spray a lot more than
conventional farmers on balance. As surprising as that might be to people
outside of agriculture.)

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SomeStupidPoint
I must admit that I don't really have the background to process your comment.

Can you... give a paragraph or two on what normal is and what organic farmers
are doing differently to cause the difference?

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gameshot911
I'm confused too - I thought 'organic' meant no pesticides were used.

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Angostura
It depends quite considerably on which country you're in. In the UK 'organic'
is heavily regulated and means pretty much that, in the U.S it's more lax. But
my guess is that the poster is saying that because organic farmers have a much
smaller range of less potent sprays available, they have to spray more by
volume.

~~~
Melting_Harps
Hmmm.. you'd be surprised, mate; I did spend time in the West part of England
and the occasional use of artificial pesticide was not uncommon especially
when your top soil has been washed away and been battered due to
flooding/erosion like it was in 2014 during those storms.

Organic is a label, that while better than conventional is not to be blindly
accepted as a panacea--that is why the community part of CSA should not be
forgotten.

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Angostura
I would be surprised, yes. There is a very short list of pesticides that can
be used and a slightly longer list that can be used with specific permission.

Which pesticides were being used on your farm? And did the farm lose organic
certification.

But even more - what has pesticide use got to do with top-soil loss? I'm not
quite clear.

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et2o
For many conditions you can't simply rotate antibiotics. Antibiotics have
specific targets and different efficacious for reasons that are entirely
unrelated to the reasons that bacteria develop resistance, not to mention
different pharmacokinetic and other biological properties.

This is something that looks great in a lab but may be very difficult if not
often impossible to implement in practice.

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technofiend
And what's the probability your patient will be as well ordered taking their
antibiotics? Failing to complete courses is one of the reasons these resistant
strains emerge in the first place.

Very cool science!! Real-world applicability? TBD.

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tankenmate
Most patients who are subject to resistant strain bacterial infection wind up
in hospital quicker. I suspect this research is mainly aimed at either
serious/critical acute care or debilitating chronic care situations which tend
to be costly not only in monetary terms but also in life and death terms.

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bhickey
There are some really neat things going on here! If you're interested in this,
check out a paper by one of my old mentors: Darwinian evolution can follow
only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins.
([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16601193](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16601193))
In general, the more deleterious a mutation, the more mutational paths we see
for escaping a local minima. (The rate of compensatory mutation in the DNA
bacteriophage phiX174
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15911582](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15911582))

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rpenm
Journal article here:
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122283)

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Melting_Harps
If we're throwing peer reviewed journals, I'd like to add this the mix because
its siting in front of my desk:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2364932/pdf/MBD-...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2364932/pdf/MBD-01-467.pdf)

(Check out the more recent citations for further reading)

I'm not diminishing the danger of super bacteria, and I believe being in
hospitals is perhaps just as bad as being in some war zone in terms of
mortality if you're immuno-compromised or recovering from a disease/surgery,
but I find it odd (not really, I've seen the self-defeating internal
machinations of academia/pharma with my own eyes) that the advent of using
silver as an anti-microbial is so neglected in the narrative; Bosch uses it in
Germany in their refrigerators, and companies like DeRoyal sell gauze
dressings specifically stated for that purpose.

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totallynotcool
I dont think that I've ever seen the idea of silver being antimicrobial be
neglected. We use burn dressings that are almost completely impregnated with
silver, silver nitrate q-tips to stop bleeding(ouch), as well as topical
ointments with some silver in it. Silver is pretty widely used in the medical
field.

~~~
Melting_Harps
Really? Well, consider you have reiterated one of the ubiquitous applications
that I mentioned in my argument, but the use of it to combat the super-
bacteria is never considered in these studies; I believe this is more by
design than not--in fact I found its absence particular lacking when I was
finishing up my studies during the so-called 'pandemic' with H1N1. It was
beyond absurd the hysteria that ensued, but perhaps more concerning was the
blind and dogmatic line of thinking that occurred that surrounded it all--a
(ill founded) faith based confidence in big pharma to solve everything, in
this case: Gillenad sciences headed by Don Rumsefeld.

I thought the pervasive theory about how it 'spontaneously emerged in nature'
incredibly suspect considering I was completing my courses in Microbio and
Biochem and working extensively with bacteriophages to create anti-biotic
resistant e. coli with limited success under controlled lab conditions... then
I realized my university-health sciences department was heavily funded by a
major hospital. And all for something that was patented by Baxter:

[http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/276194](http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/276194)
[http://www.globalresearch.ca/big-pharma-baxter-files-
swine-f...](http://www.globalresearch.ca/big-pharma-baxter-files-swine-flu-
vaccine-patent-a-year-ahead-of-outbreak/14430)

So I find the use of silver nano-partical therapy, oral or sub-lingual
administration or atomized silver inhalation methods are acutely lacking as
possible means to combat anti-biotic resistant bacteria/infections, as well as
viruses and fungi.

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dylanrw
This is brilliant. One of those things that seem obvious once presented.

