The Japanese have revealed the secrets of antibiotic resistance

To defeat multi-resistant bacteria, it is necessary to know how they manage to fight antibiotics. In Nature Communications, researchers from the Japanese Riken Institute explain how they managed to analyze the evolution of a bacterium in the face of antibiotics. Scientists developed a robotic bacterial culture system. This mechanism allowed them to analyze the evolution of bacteria E. Coli over 250 generations, with exposure to 95 different antibiotics.

Resistance profiles

The researchers studied in particular the variations in the bacteria’s messenger RNA: this allowed them to understand which genes were expressed. For 192 strains of the bacterium, they were able to develop a resistance profile. “We have observed that the evolutionary dynamics of E. Coli are related to the small number of intracellular conditions, this means that it has a limited number of strategies to resist antibiotics “, explains Tomoya Maeda, one of the authors of this research. Thanks to their work they were able to identify 157 combinations of antibiotics that are effective in preventing bacterial resistance. “We believe our findings can be used to develop alternative strategies for blocking multi-resistant bacteria. “This is the first time that scientific research has identified the resistance mechanisms of a bacterium to a large number of antibiotics.

What are the risks of antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health – so it has been classified by the World Health Organization. If the bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic and there is no other remedy, the risk is a therapeutic dead end, that is, the lack of effective treatment. Infections that are easy to treat today could become complicated to treat or even lead to preventable deaths today.

In France, between 2009 and 2018, the consumption of antibiotics was reduced by 15%. But it is still too high: its levels they are 30% more than the European average. According to a study by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 5,543 people die each year in France from an infection with a multi-resistant bacterium and 124,806 patients are infected with this type of bacteria. If antimicrobial resistance control strategies are ineffective, it could be the leading cause of death worldwide in 2050.