#superbugs

"A new study evaluated a low-cost yet effective way to combat bacterial resistance using curcumin–the natural yellow plant compound in turmeric.

In 2017, a tragic death in a Nevada hospital was linked to a new strain of bacteria that had developed a resistance to 26 different antibiotics. Called ‘superbugs’, such antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including MRSA) remains a pressing public health threat.

Now researchers at Texas A&M University have shown that curcumin, the compound that gives turmeric its characteristic bright yellow color, can be used to reduce this antibiotic resistance.

They showed that when curcumin is intentionally given to bacteria as food, and then activated by light, it can trigger deleterious reactions within these microbes, eventually killing them. They demonstrated that this process reduces the number of antibiotic-resistant strains and renders conventional antibiotics effective again.

The results of the study were published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

“We need alternative ways to either kill the superbugs or find a novel way to modify natural processes within the bacteria so that antibiotics start to act again,” said Dr. Vanderlei Bagnato, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and senior author on the study.

Photodynamic inactivation, a technique that has shown promise in combating bacterial resistance, uses light and light-sensitive molecules, called photosensitizers, to produce reactive oxygen species that can kill microorganisms by disrupting their metabolic processes.

In the new experiments, the team used curcumin, which is also a natural food for bacteria. They tested this technique on strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that are resistant to amoxicillin, erythromycin, and gentamicin.

The researchers exposed the bacteria to many cycles of light exposure and then compared the minimum concentration of antibiotics needed to kill the bacteria after light exposure versus those that did not get light exposure.

“When we have a mixed population of bacteria where some are resistant, we can use photodynamic inactivation to narrow the bacterial distribution, leaving behind strains that are more or less similar in their response to antibiotics,” Bagnato told Texas A&M News.

“It’s much easier now to predict the precise antibiotic dose needed to remove the infection.”

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The team noted that photodynamic inactivation using curcumin has tremendous potential as an adjuvant or additional therapy with antibiotics for diseases, like pneumonia, caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

“Photodynamic inactivation offers a cost-effective treatment option, which is crucial for reducing medical expenses not only in developing countries but also in the United States,” said Dr. Vladislav Yakovlev, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and author on the study..."

In 2017, a tragic death in a Nevada hospital was linked to a new strain of bacteria that had developed a resistance to 26 different antibiotics. Called ‘superbugs’, such antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including MRSA) remains a pressing public health threat.

Now researchers at Texas A&M University have shown that curcumin, the compound that gives turmeric its characteristic bright yellow color, can be used to reduce this antibiotic resistance.

They showed that when curcumin is intentionally given to bacteria as food, and then activated by light, it can trigger deleterious reactions within these microbes, eventually killing them. They demonstrated that this process reduces the number of antibiotic-resistant strains and renders conventional antibiotics effective again.

The results of the study were published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are expected to claim more human lives than cancer by 2050.

Situation is only short of being declared a health emergency.

Almost 10 million people die each year in the world from cancer according to www.ourworldindata.org 

The factors contributing to the rise in superbugs are many by which mutations and ARGs occur resulting in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 

Antibiotics overuse and misuse are among the factors and so is hospital hygiene.

ARGs (antibiotic-resistant genes) through Horizontal Gene Transfer can occur in three main ways: Transformation - in which the bacteria picks up genetic material from the environment.

Transduction - in which bacteriophages transfer genes between bacteria when bacteria DNA gets incorporated in the genomes of the virus. This can happen during the Lytic or Lysogenic Cycles which are reproduction processes of bacteriophages.

Conjugation - in which genes are transfered between bacteria from a donor bacterium to a recipient bacterium on direct contact.

In laboratory tests transduction was observed more frequent to occur than in nature. This may or may not be a reassuring indication. Because of the abundance of phages and bacteria generally in hospitals. More studies and observation is required in this matter to have a better understanding or estimate.

Bacteriophages or phages for short, are viruses that have specifically evolved to attack bacteria and are harmless to humans. They were in fact used to treat bacterial infections before the discovery of antibiotics.

Microbiologist Felix d'Herelle in 1917 at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, published a paper in which the lysing of bacteria was described "by an invisible microbe he named Bacteriophage." 

The first recorded therapeutic use of phages was in 1919.

Phage Therapy is being explored by scientists again because of the superbug catastrophe. The increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is so severe that if no solution is found humanity will go back to the days of dying from the simplest of infections.

Phages have two studied functions of reproduction. One is highly in favour of elimination of bacteria which is used in phage therapy. It is the lytic cycle: the phage attaches to any of its specific target range of bacteriam and injects its DNA into it, eventually the phages multiply in the bacterium killing it.

To use this process as phage therapy it is required to identify the phages that can attack the specific bacterial infection. Since each type of phage can only attack a range of bacteria but not all bacteria.

The sides effects are not known of this treatment if there are any. What is known so far is that the phages used in the therapy should be eliminated from the human body when there is no bacterial infection host cells anymore. 

However, phages can also be a factor that contribute to bacteria getting ARGs by the lytic or the lysogenic cycle in which the phage injects its DNA into the bacterium but instead of multiplying immediately the phages are reproduced in the cell devision process of the bacterium. However, here too the phages eventually kill the bacteria cell and burst from it to infect more bacteria cells.

Bacteria can also become superbugs due to natural mutations during cell division.

Phages are the most abundant entities on earth, outnumbering all living organisms including bacteria. And have been actively evolving for billions of years.

It is suspected they might be the workers that drive evolution in species.

I interviewed some nurses who said another problem with the treatment of bacterial infections is the practise of prescribing strong antibiotics from the start. The problem with this is that if the bacteria becomes resistant there is no higher antibiotic to administer said the nurses.

Adam Hersh, M.D, Ph.D. an expert in infectious diseases writes in an article on the University of Utah website.

"When US doctors prescribe antibiotics, 60% of the time it is strong antibiotics (broad spectrum) which can kill multiple kinds of bacteria. According to a study by University of Utah researchers. But more than 25% in such cases it is useless because the infection is from a virus." He says the downside of this can be that the antibiotics kill the "good" bacteria in the body which can lead to more side effects and also contribute to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Copyright ©️ Arjuwan Lakkdawala 2022

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Alphonso Evans rolls his wheelchair into a weight machine in the gym at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Ga.

"I'm not so much worried about dying from a heart attack or diabetes, because I'm active. I know what to do to work against it: watch what I eat, exercise," Evans says. "But what do I do about an infection? Or fighting off a bacteria — something inside me that I don't see until it's too late?"

Evans, 67, is fully paralyzed from the chest down and has only partial use of his hands. And like a lot of spinal cord injury patients, he's prone to infections, especially bladder infections.

About two years ago, he came to the VA medical center for what he thought was just another bladder infection. Turns out, he also had a bone infection and developed pneumonia. He ended up in intensive care. "It scared me," says Evans, who lives nearby in Hephzibah, Ga. "And I don't scare easy."

Bladder infections, like many others, are increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics.

"We are getting to the point where there are organisms that are resistant to every known antibiotic," says Michael Priebe, a doctor who heads the spinal cord injury service at the VA medical center.

"My fear is that as we are in this arms race, there gets to the point where we are not able to keep up with the enemy — the resistant bacteria. The superbugs take over, and we have nothing to defend against it," Priebe says.

So Priebe enlisted Evans to help develop a different way to fight superbugs. It's a new kind of living antibiotic made out of viruses that have been genetically modified using the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

"What CRISPR is able to do is something that we've not been able to do before. And that is, very selectively modify genes in the viruses to target the bacteria," Priebe says.

Scientists Modify Viruses With CRISPR To Create New Weapon Against Superbugs