Winning the Fight against Super Bugs

The term antibiotics refers to substances that kill bacterium or prevent their growth. Antibiotics atomic number 18 natural substances that be released by bacterium and fungi into their environment to fight otherwise organisms. The use of antibiotics by organisms accordingly represents chemical warfare on a microscopic scale. The activity of antibiotics was ascertained by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 when he observed that colonies of the bacterium staph aureus could be destroyed by the mould Penicillium notatum.The significance of the baring was however not realized at that time, and it was only in the mid-forties when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed the substance in its powdery flesh, that it was realized that penicillin and other antibiotics could be utilise as real effective medicines to kill certain types of disease-causing bacterium within the human body. bacteriuml infections can be fatal, especially for young children an d babies who do not confine adequate immunity.Labeled as the wonder drug, the use of antibiotics to combat bacteriuml infections resulted in a significant decrease in the deaths due infectious diseases such(prenominal) as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Antibiotics are not only used to used to treat human ailments but also bacterial infections in plants and animals. after(prenominal) having been effectively used for almost half a century, a new(a) challenge loomed up in front of populace in the form of bacteria that turned resistant to antibiotics. These bacteria are known as the superbugs. Natural antibiotics have probably existed as long as microorganisms have.Certain types of bacteria have therefore undergone adaptation and mutation to overcome the action of antibiotics. These bacteria have learnt to deal with practically all types of antibiotics that are avail satisfactory. They pose a serious problem in the form of diseases that cannot be treated with any(prenominal) medicine s. As antibiotics treatment of bacterial infections continues, the number and variety of super bugs are bound to increase. It could eventually come to a pass when bacterial infections manufacture as fatal as they were in the days before the find of antibiotics.This could lead to a depicted scenario in which the very existence of humankind could be threatened. There is, however, good news. A research led by Dr Adrian Lloyd of the University of Warwicks Department of Biological Sciences has succeeded in unraveling how the super bug streptococci pneumoniae develops its penicillin immunity (University of Warwick, 2008). This finding opens up many new avenues of disrupting the process of outgrowth of resistance to antibiotics by the streptococci pneumoniae specifically and other super bugs in general.This could enable scientists to restore penicillin as a weapon against these bacteria, as well up as restore the efficacy of other types of antibiotics against their respective bacteri a. Essentially the withdraw found that a protein called the MurM was at the root of the development of resistance to antibiotics by the bacteria. Very simply put, Penicillin normally kills off the S. pneumoniae by inhibiting the make-up of Peptidoglycan an substantial component of the bacterial cell wall which protects the otherwise fragile bacterial cell.When Peptidoglycan is not produced, the protective cell wall of the bacteria is not form leading to the death of the organism. It had been observed that the protein MurM was linked to changes in the chemical opus of the Peptidoglycan that was found in penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. The protein MurM has been found to lead to the constitution of particular structures known as the dipeptide bridges in the peptidoglycan resulting in the formation of a bacterial cell wall that is resistant to penicillin.The Warwick team were able to replicate the activity of MurM in a test tube, allowing them to define the chemistr y of the MurM reaction in detail and understand every key feeling of how Streptococcus pneumoniae deploys MurM to gain this resistance. (University of Warwick, 2008). This will enable the Warwick team and any other pharmaceutical researchers to zero in on MurM reaction in the Streptococcus pneumoniae and develop drugs to disrupt the process of development of resistance to penicillin.The result could be designer penicillin antibiotics to be deployed effectively against penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. Since the same apparatus works in the development of resistance to antibiotics in other bacteria such as MRSA, the findings of the Warwick University research could open up more fronts in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria. Moreover, the researchers have been able to readily make every stage of formation of the peptidoglycan required by the Streptococcus pneumoniae to condition up its penicillin-resistant cell wall.This provides pharmaceutical companies d ifferent levels at which to effort the process of development of antibiotic resistance that could lead to the invention of an rate of modified penicillin for penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. The significance of the new findings can be gauged from the fact that Streptococcus pneumonia causes 5 million fatalities worldwide in children. In the United States, it is the cause of infection in 1 million time-worn out of which 7% end in fatalities.In every day feel the finding can be related to arming a conventional missile with a nuclear warhead. The enemy in this case are the bacteria, and the war is not for the annihilation for the survival of humanity. References -01 University of Warwick (2008, March 15). How Antibiotic foul Bugs Became Resistant To Penicillin, And How Penicillin Could Work Again. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 1, 2003, from http//www. sciencedaily. com /releases/2008/03/080312100041. htm