antibiotic-resistant bacteria They represent one of the greatest public health challenges we face this century. At the moment, its consequences may not be as drastic as the consequences of a viral pandemic. But gradually they have become a problem that is only getting worse. In fact, they are currently already causing some 700,000 deaths annually, 4000 in Spain. Thus, a vaccine against this type of bacteria, which has just been developed by a team of scientists from Michigan State University, provides much-needed hope in our time.
So far this has only been tested with animal models. It’s important to make this clear. Despite this, the results were so promising that it cannot be ruled out that it is effective in humans.
About how this works vaccine against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this is quite interesting, since it is very different from the vaccines we are used to. This may be his weakness, but it is actually his greatest strength. Let’s see what this all means.
Why is a vaccine against antibiotic-resistant bacteria important?
The history of medicine can almost be divided into times before penicillin and those who came after. In the first stage, a person may die from what today seems like a simple infection. Otitis, tonsillitis with plaques, a wound that becomes infected… Thanks to antibiotics, human life expectancy has increased significantly. But bacteria are developing their own weapons in this war to such an extent that they may take a dangerous step back into history.
Overuse of antibiotics leads to many resistant bacteria their. This is due to the fact that some of these microorganisms randomly develop mutations that make them resistant to the drug. If a bacterial colony is treated with this drug, only those who have developed this mutation will resist. These will be the ones that continue to reproduce. In addition, bacteria have the ability to transfer genes to each other, so if most of the survivors have a resistance gene, they can pass it on to the rest. Thus, when the drug is used again, they will resist much more strongly, which again They will continue to play.
Problems of overuse
If antibiotics were used alone when strictly necessary, such enrichment of a stable population would not be as common. The problem is that for many years there has been excessive use of these drugs, even using them to treat influenza and other diseases caused by viruses that antibiotics would logically not treat. They are not affected, but the few bacteria that can be present in the body without causing disease are affected, so resistance genes become predominant.
Since this problem arose, there has been a search for antimicrobial substances that can replace antibiotics. Artificial intelligence is even beginning to be used to find germicidal powers in drugs and other applications. But at the moment, the panacea that we so need has not been found. Vaccines against antibiotic-resistant bacteria may therefore be key.
How do vaccines work against antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
The role of vaccines, whatever type they are, is to stimulate our immune system so that if an infection occurs, he is well prepared to deal with it.
The first vaccines in history introduced live, weakened viruses into the body. That is, the pathogen itself was used, but it was weakened so that it did not cause the disease. Thus, the immune system passed a kind of first test without the risk of getting sick.
Over time, the introduction of antigens of the pathogen in question was studied. That is, a certain molecule belonging to its structure that can be recognized by the immune system, as if it were an infection. They are usually used squirrels. Even with mRNA vaccinesinstructions are put in place to ensure that our cells produce these proteins.
On the other hand, the authors of a study that was just published in Natural communications tried another type of antigen: carbohydrates. The sugars present in the cell wall of bacteria are usually very specific to each of them. In fact, the few vaccines that use these antigens give several in one dose to address different strains.
However, scientists from Michigan State University have been studying various variants of the antigen for many years and have finally found a very promising carbohydrate. Called poly-β-(1-6)-N-acetylglucosamine, or PNAG. Its initial goal is to develop a vaccine against bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and its more dangerous stable version, S. aureus methicillin-resistant (MRSA). However, this polysaccharide is found in these bacteria, in other species, and even in fungi. The range of microorganisms that the vaccine will protect against is very wide.
In search of a better conformation
Once the ideal polysaccharide was discovered, scientists analyzed its different conformations. They themselves determine the structure of these carbohydrates as mosaic where you can move its constituent parts. In particular, they moved some atoms included in the so-called functional groups. For example, amines, which contain nitrogen and hydrogen, acetyl groups – with carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
In a study that was just published, they examined 32 different conformations from PNAG and there are 2 left, especially effective ones. After discovery, all that remained was to find a way to deliver the antigen to model animals. To do this they also used a very interesting mechanism: bacteriophages.
These are viruses that infect bacteria, but not humans. They modified one of these viruses to contain two selected conformations of PNAG and saw how it was able to stimulate an immune response without causing disease.
Moreover, although antibodies have been produced against a wide range of bacteria, including MRSA, gut microbiota. These are all advantages, but we still can’t throw bells into the air. This vaccine against antibiotic-resistant bacteria could be an important weapon, but there is still a lot of research ahead. Optimism yes, but with caution.
Source: Hiper Textual
