Penicillin allergies may be linked to one immune system gene

According to the article, penicillin is frequently used as a first-line antibiotic since it is efficient against a wide range of bacterial illnesses. Penicillins are a class of antibiotics that work against a wide array of bacteria. Despite this, it is one of the leading causes of drug allergies. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 10% of individuals have had an adverse response to penicillin. Researchers now have identified a genetic component to hypersensitivity, which may produce hives, wheezing, arrhythmias, and other symptoms, although it is seldom deadly. Penicillin hypersensitivity may be triggered by a genetic change in an immune system gene that aids the body in differentiating between our own cells and pathogenic microorganisms and viruses. According to Kristi Krebs, a pharmacogenomics researcher at the Estonian Genome Center at the University of Tartu, the hotspot lies on the major histocompatibility complex gene HLA-B. Recent research has linked significant variances in HLA genes to negative medication effects. Studies have connected one HLA-B variant to adverse responses to the HIV/AIDS drug, abacavir, and another HLA-B variant to allergic reactions to the gout drug, allopurinol. The researchers evaluated more than 600,000 electronic health records for genetic information on patients who self-reported penicillin intolerance for the penicillin study. The researchers employed a number of genetic search techniques to filter through DNA in search of genetic abnormalities that may be connected to the health issue. Their search led them to a particular location on chromosome 6, where they discovered HLA-B*55:01, a variant of HLA. The researchers then compared their findings to 1.12 million individuals of European ancestry in 23andMe's study database and discovered the same connection. A search of smaller datasets of individuals with East Asian, Middle Eastern, and African ancestry showed no evidence of a comparable link, however the sample sizes were too small to be certain. Hopefully, more clarity can be found on the genetic linkage to the hypersensitivity of patients to penicillin. 

Penicillin allergies and immune system gene

    In this article I came across, I read that Penicillin is found to be extremely effective against the majority of bacterial infections. This is often the first-line antibiotic and is also one of the most common causes of drug allergies. The allergies are said to begin in childhood. People who report penicillin allergies can have a genetic variation on an immune system gene that helps the body distinguish between our own cells and other harmful bacteria and viruses. The genetic variation that can be discovered on someone's DNA, and until recently on a specific gene is known has HLA-B. This is a known gene to provide instructions for proteins that help determine and fight against foreign bodies. These genes play a critical role in the immune system. To me, it is interesting to see how certain medicines may affect certain people. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255391/

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/penicillin-allergies-immune-system-genetics

Oxygen - The New Antibiotic

Along with being antibiotic resistant, bacteria have also adopted sleep as a form of survival. By using toxin antitoxin systems, bacteria can become dormant to resist antibiotic attacks and awaken as soon as their environment permits. These systems, also referred to as biofilm, are responsible for 80% of infections and are often the reason bacteria are referred to as antibiotic resistant.

Earlier this month, Thomas K. Wood and his colleagues analyzed the first known toxin antitoxin system produced by E. coli in a biofilm. It is most unique because it is also the first system found to be dependent upon oxygen. The research conducted revealed that the antitoxin structure produced by the bacteria had passageways big enough to allow oxygen to flow through it. Toxin Hha and antitoxin TomB need oxygen to work. TomB, in conjunction with oxygen, oxidize Hha to wake up dormant bacteria after being stressed.

The research also reveals that only 10% oxygen is enough to awaken the bacteria, and using the oxygen passageways, an entire colony of bacteria can be manipulated into breaking up and dispersing biofilm so an actual antibiotic may be able to attack the active bacteria.

Although interesting, I did not entirely understand how this information can be applied into a human bacterial infection. Normal blood oxygen levels can be anywhere from 95-100%, so how would this knowledge be applied when prescribing an antibiotic treatment? It probably is more useful as prophylactic, to prevent biofilms from forming in the body all together to prevent bacteria from going dormant in order to cure an infection faster.

Image taken from http://news.psu.edu/photo/441070/2016/12/08/toxin-antitoxin-002

Cases of Sexually Transmitted Diseases are on Rise

From recent studies, research has been shown that S.T.Ds, sexually transmitted diseases, are raising at unusually high rates.  Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis have all had a major increase.  This spike has been shown throughout many western states.  All three of these diseases can be treated with antibiotics, but gonorrhea is becoming more resistant to some of the medicine used for treatment. This could be a major problem within the future if more research is not performed and new antibiotics are not found.

Syphilis has increased in both men and women throughout every area of the United States.  There has been a rise of 6% in congenital syphilis, or babies contracting the diseases from affected mothers. Children born with S.T.D.s are more likely to die within infancy and some are stillborn.  The reason for this spike points to budget cuts that were being made to programs that provide testing and antibiotics to infected individuals.  Without enough money, these programs cannot give the patients the necessary help that they need.  Another reason for this boom of S.T.D.s is that more young people are using social media to connect with people.  Dr. Mermin, director of National Center for H.I.V./AIDS, suggests that Tinder is one of the main problems contributing to this spike in diseases. S.T.D.s are a large problem within the United States and budget cuts to programs that help individuals is hurting the entire country.  People who do not receive treatment or are unknown that they have the disease, can possibly pass it on to multiple people and the cycle continues.  More genetic studies need to be performed on sexually transmitted diseases to better understand them and to completely stop the repeating cycle.  

Study Reveals that Antibiotics do not Induce Conjugation in Bacteria

For many years, it has been considered a well known fact that the gene transfer of antibiotic resistant genes is induced in the presence of antibiotics.  A study perfomed at Duke University, however, has recently disproved this mainstreamed theory with few exceptions.
A form of horizontal gene transfer called conjugation was theorized to be the cause of populations of resistant bacteria.  "Because the number of resistant bacteria rises when antibiotics fail to kill them, researchers assumed that the drugs increased the amount of genetic swapping taking place."  But, the study performed determined that this increase in resistant bacterial cell count was due to the parent lineages being killed by antibiotics.  Thus, allowing the resistant strain to thrive.
Bacteria were suspended in G0 phase.  Ten drugs, representative of each major class of antibiotic, was added to each sample.  The total rate of gene exchange was tested and, for all but few exceptions, no antibiotic resistance was observed to exchange between microorganisms.  To learn more about conjugation, gene transfer, and antibiotic resistance, visit this site on antimicrobial resistance.

Typhoid Gene Revealed

Typhoid fever is a serious problem in many places in the world. When people eat or drink contaminated food or water, they contract typhoid fever. Typhoid fever takes many lives over the course of a year. About 26.9 million people are infected each year and an estimated 200,000 lives are taken. Now for the first time, scientists have discovered that some people carrying a particular gene might be more prone to catching typhoid fever. As lead researcher, Dr. Sarah Dunstan at the Nossal Institute of Global Health at the University of Melbourne explains that certain forms of the HLA-DRB1 gene found in humans is a natural resistance to typhoid fever.

Knowing this basic resistance to typhoid fever will hopefully lead to better understanding of disease resistance. With the knowledge of disease resistance, scientists will be able to better guard against typhoid fever and hopefully other bacterial diseases in the future. Typhoid fever is a very tricky bacteria that is becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. Current vaccinations are barely effective especially against the strain of typhoid fever called paratyphoid fever. Because of this resistance, better prevention and treatment of typhoid fever is greatly needed in order to help the growing number of infected people around the world.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141111105158.htm

How Bacteria Resist Antibiotics in Hospitals

Scientists have discovered why antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrive in hospitals.  By using advanced DNA sequencing of samples from over 1,000 patients, researchers were able to identify antibiotic-resistant genes.  This was possible as they were able to see the complete genome of bacteria samples.  Circular DNA known as plasmids appear to be the center of the issue.  Plasmids easily enter bacteria and have the ability to move from one bacteria to another.  This study indicates that some plasmids carry a gene responsible for making bacteria drug-resistant.  Plasmids are able to multiply independently and can integrate their DNA with the DNA of bacteria.  Scientists have found that plasmids containing the gene capable of inactivating certain antibiotics can be transferred to bacteria of various classifications.  Dr. Tara Palmore, an infection control specialist for the U.S. National Institute of Health and co-author of this study stated, "The plasmids we are talking about carry an antibiotic-resistant gene to a class of antibiotic called carbapenems."  The carbapenem class of antibiotics are essentially antibiotics of last resort.  Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center stated, "Carbapenems are the best we have. So if you've got carbapenem resistance, there is nowhere else for us to go.  We don't have a secret treatment up our sleeves."  

The image above displays the serious threat that 

antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose to humans.  

According to the study, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are bacterial pathogens that pose an alarming threat to hospitalized patients.  The occurrence of CRE has quadrupled in the United States in the last ten years. Researchers claim that CRE are resistant to most, if not all antibiotics.  A death rate of 40-80% from infection has been reported.  According to the U.S. National Institute of Health, over the past two years, ten patients have been identified as having resistance to carbapenems.  Although patients who contain this bacteria may not be sick themselves, they have the ability to pass the drug-resistant bacteria to others.  Dr. Julie Segre, chief investigator at the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute and co-author of this study stated, "We are trying to reinforce the message that these drug-resistant bacteria can't become so prevalent that we can no longer control them."  

Ultimately, drug companies need to manufacture new antibiotics in which doctors need to use more cautiously.  Hospitals also need to do a better job of disinfecting facilities.  The correlation between the use of antibiotics and the increasing level of antibiotic- resistant bacteria is extremely interesting. In particular, this article caught my eye, as I always read how important it is for medical personnel to be careful when prescribing antibiotics.  Antibiotics are often prescribed during unnecessary circumstances in which over usage leads to ineffectiveness.  The article supports that theory due to bacteria forming resistance over time to even the most potent antibiotics available in the world today.


[1] Article: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/09/17/researchers-discover-how-bacteria-resist-antibiotics-in-hospitals
Related articles: http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ICAAC/47541
                          http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282357.php

Beyond Antibiotics: 'PPMOs' Offer New Approach to Bacterial Infection, Other Diseases

     Oregon State University researchers have discovered a new way of fighting bacteria called "PPMOs." These disease-fighters target the genes of the bacterium, rather than the conventional antibacterial method of disrupting cellular functions. This provides a valuable tool in combating the rise in antibacterial-resistant strains and provides a much more precise tool in fighting disease. PPMOs have not yet been tested in humans, but their precursor, PMOs, are completely safe. PPMOs are much more powerful, however, and are being seriously considered as a result. So, while the discovery is significant, much more work must be done before this exciting new bacteria fighter can be used to fight disease.

      This article was incredibly interesting to me, especially considering all the discussion about resistant strains lately. Bacteria evolving and becoming resistant is a fairly new problem for us and one that is escalating in urgency, so this news is very timely and important. Hopefully PPMOs are viable for human use. We could certainly use another avenue for attacking bacterial diseases.


Antibiotic-resistant MRSA

(Article) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131015134922.htm
(Related) http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/antibiotic_resistance.htm

New Way for Antibiotic Resistance to Spread

Since we were just studying antibiotic resistance in lab,I chose this article. The article was found on Science Daily.The study was performed by Washington State University. The researchers used dairy calves to perform their experiments in the lab. The researchers focused on the antibiotic ceftiofur, a cephalosporin believed to be the helping drive for the proliferation of resistance in bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli. Ceftiofur has minimal impact on gut bacteria. Even though infections have been considerably lowered in the past 70 years, it has had a negative effect on many due to natural selection of drug-resistant microbes. The individuals who are infected with this organism find it difficult to get well fast. They tend to have long hospital stays and have a higher chance of death from minor issues. The researchers mixed cow dung, soil and urine infused with metabolized antibiotic. This recipe was used for antibiotic resistant bacteria. The urine killed off the normal E-Coli in the dung-soil mixture. The antibiotic resistant E-coli survived the soil mixture to recolonize in the calves gut through pasture, forage or bedding.

The main researcher stated " "If our work turns out to be broadly applicable, it means that selection for resistance to important drugs like ceftiofur occurs mostly outside of the animals, This in turn means that it may be possible to develop engineered solutions to interrupt this process. In doing so we would limit the likelihood that antibiotic resistant bacteria will get back to the animals and thereby have a new approach to preserve the utility of these important drugs." One possible solution they mention is to isolate and dispose of residual antibiotic after it is excreted from an animal but before it interacts with soil bacteria.

This article was interesting because many people nowadays have a drug- resistant microbe and it's most likely going to get worse as time goes on.