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The discussion here seems to have ignored what seems like the interesting/new part of this. There has been plenty of prior research and media around blanket use
by abeppu 4y ago
The discussion here seems to have ignored what seems like the interesting/new part of this. There has been plenty of prior research and media around blanket use of antibiotics creating _drug resistant_ bacteria which are harder to fight with drugs. But this is saying that additionally because some antibiotics are similar to chemicals endogenously produced within our own bodies, they also produce bacteria which our bodies are less effective at fighting on their own.
I.e. this isn't just about the use of antibiotics -- this is about the use of antibiotics which are _similar to parts of our own immune systems_. Using antibiotics which are more dissimilar to our own immune responses would create _drug resistant_ bacteria but not _immune resistant_ bacteria.
- ciconia 4y agoThis isn't just about antibiotics, it's also about monoculture. Both of those combined lead to a never ending arms race.
- GLGirty 4y ago> a never ending arms race Did you mean, "the great filter?"
- abeppu 4y ago> In the study, E coli carrying a resistance gene, called MCR-1, were exposed to AMPs known to play important roles in innate immunity in chickens, pigs, and humans. If the same kinds of AMPs appear across mammals and birds, breaking the monoculture (by e.g. raising animals of different breeds and species etc) but still using this class of antibiotics would still seem likely to cause the immune resistance problem. I'm not advocating for the monoculture-based practices, but I don't see how it's related to this specific mechanism.
- darkerside 4y agoI think the connection to monoculture is that specific pathogens could decimate homogenous populations (see Irish potato famine), making widespread antibiotic use necessary in a much more preventative way
- heavyset_go 4y agoMonocultures have a history of disaster. The Great Irish Famine happened, in part, because the economic system at the time forced the working class to depend on a potato monoculture for sustenance. We see a similar result happening where our economic system forces us to depend on monocultures for food production.
- ghoogl 4y ago[dead]
- etiam 4y agoYes, that's the key part. Physiologically it's well known that that the antibacterial peptides are part of the immune system. They were discovered as a part of the pathogen defense mechanisms of insects, found to be present also in vertebrates as well and only then, of course, exploited for chemical mimicry as pharmaca. How anybody could believe taking that component out from the rest of the defense system, and breed pathogen resistance against it in isolation, could be anything but begging for calamity is beyond me. It boggles the mind that this has been permitted to go on, but particularly unexpected it is not at all, sadly.
- pjc50 4y ago> How anybody could believe taking that component out from the rest of the defense system, and breed pathogen resistance against it in isolation, could be anything but begging for calamity is beyond me. It boggles the mind that this has been permitted to go on, but particularly unexpected it is not at all, sadly. Every irreplaceable natural resource (in this case, human immunity) is somebody's profit waiting to be taken, unless stopped.
- etiam 4y agoYeah, that seems to be the issue doesn't it. And this in a pharma sub-field infamous for not getting enough investment in corporate research because the effect of novel substances is almost instantly destroyed by precisely the sort of misuse the article points to. One's tempted to dismiss any attempts to adequately explain the exploitation with either greed or stupidity as impossible, and just chalk it up to pure malice...
- ChatGTP 4y agoThis is just the cost of technological progress ? Everything gets easier and cheaper , even the nasty stuff.
- throwbadubadu 4y agoMaybe ok if used just as medicine for rare cases where it's the last hope.. but for what do we use it? To have more of mass-produced meat every day, meat with meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, yay!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]