4 ms·
In addition to phage therapy option mentioned here, there's also a class of synthetic polymers that selectively disrupts only bacterial DNA. Those molecules can
by Protostome 5y ago
In addition to phage therapy option mentioned here, there's also a class of synthetic polymers that selectively disrupts only bacterial DNA. Those molecules can't cross the nucleus and therefore are not toxic to eucaryotes.
This therapeutic direction has two key advantages over other approaches:
1. There's no way bacteria can develop resistance to it in the next 1b years, since those synthetic polymers bind to free DNA without any preference to particular sequences. Therefore, there's no known mechanism (mutations, horizontal gene transfer, etc) that can provide immunity against this class of agents.
2. Being a "small" molecule it has much less risk of eliciting an immune response ( unlike phages, who may invoke some response from immune cells which can decrease the potency of the treatment)
Here is the latest study i'm familiar with that showed pretty good results in animal models:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33571116/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33571116/
- petertodd 5y ago> and therefore are not toxic to eucaryotes. Not toxic directly. Disrupting "good" bacteria that we co-exist with isn't always harm free, as I'm sure the people researching those polymers are well aware of.
- Fomite 5y agoSee: C. difficle infections
- Protostome 5y agoThat is correct, the same problem exist for current antibiotics which are generally considered safe
- colordrops 5y agoRegarding 1, a bacteria could evolve a cell surface that blocks the polymer in the same way a eukaryotic nucleus does.
- Protostome 5y agoThat is possible, but we're talking about different time constants here. Antibiotic resistance can arise in a few generations. Evolving a different membrane composition that will block that particular toxin and not the other ingredients the cell requires to function (amino acids, carbohydrates, etc), is much less probable to take place in such a short time
- publicola1990 5y agoIs there a name for this approach?
- lofi_lory 5y agoBacteria could evolve "antibodies" to these molecules, or enzymes to get rid of them. See CRISPR, plasmid transfer and colony signaling ... bacteria got quite sophisticated defenses.