Antibiotic Resistance: Breakthrough Probiotic Drink Can Tackle Medical Challenge At Genetic Level

Antibiotic resistance is on the rise and is becoming a global threat to public health. A new study showed that a key genetic element can tackle it at a genetic level.

The researchers at the University of Birmingham engineered a drink that has the potential to work against drug-resistant bacteria commonly found in our guts such as the E.coli, klebsiella pneumonia and salmonella.

The new probiotic drink targets small DNA molecules called plasmids which are present inside the cells of the bacteria. Their function is to carry the genes which provide resistance to antibiotics. When these plasmids replicate and spread between bacteria, they carry the resistance genes alongside.

This drink prevents the plasmids from replicating and the researchers were able to displace the resistance genes present in the bacteria and effectively re-sensitize them to antibiotics.

"We were able to show that if you can stop the plasmid from replicating, then most of the bacteria lose the plasmid as the bacteria grow and divide. This means that infections that might otherwise be hard to control, even with the most powerful antibiotics available, are more likely to be treatable with standard antibiotics," MedicalXpress quoted the Lead author Professor Christopher Thomas.

This drink will contain bacteria that will carry a new type of plasmid named pCURE plasmids which help prevent the resistance plasmids from replication. When the number of copies of pCURE plasmids doubles, it effectively cleared out antibiotic resistance by displacing different types of resistance plasmids.

When they tested this in mice models, they found that it worked very effectively to clear out resistance. Their next step is to find out if it can get rid of resistance plasmids in human beings. They are also aiming at making several modifications to improve the efficacy of their pCURE plasmids before starting with their first clinical trial.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest medical challenges currently. We should tackle this by using several methods by not only reducing the use of antibiotics but also find out more efficient drugs. This new probiotic drink approach which tackles the main cause of antimicrobial resistance at a genetic level can pave the way towards new weapons to reverse the resistance.