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Countering the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics

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Subido el 25 de julio de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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The resistance of harmful bacteria to antibiotics is becoming a public health issue of great importance. Over the last century antibiotic drugs have revolutionised the treatment of infectious diseases. By reducing the devastating effects of many illnesses antibiotics have greatly improved the health of people around the world. Today, however, the effects of antibiotics are diminishing as bacteria and other harmful organisms are becoming resistant to their antibacterial agents.

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Eighty kilometers from Stockholm, near the town of Uppsala, lies the farm of Anders Kjellarby. 00:00:00
As well as cattle, there's a herd of 180 pigs, and every year the farm produces 4,200 piglets. 00:00:08
There are very tough restrictions, including a maximum weaning age of four weeks and a 00:00:16
complete ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters. 00:00:20
Sweden was the first European country to adopt such a ban in 1986. 00:00:24
We had to eliminate the use of antibiotics that boost growth, so to stay competitive 00:00:29
we needed to be stricter in our pig rearing. 00:00:34
We now have to separate them by age. 00:00:38
We have to wash them more thoroughly when we transfer the animals from one compartment 00:00:41
to another. 00:00:45
This means we've had to make certain changes in the pigstyles. 00:00:50
All these measures have worked very well. 00:00:54
From January 2006, the ban on antibiotics as growth promoters has come into effect across 00:00:59
the EU. 00:01:04
Farmers can only use antibiotics, drugs that attack living microbes, to treat diseases. 00:01:05
The measure's not just aimed at improving animal welfare, it's an important step in 00:01:10
combating a real danger to human health, antibiotic resistance. 00:01:14
Many drugs still on sale have become either ineffective or far less reliable than they 00:01:19
used to be. 00:01:23
Excessive and sometimes inappropriate use of medicine has led to a rapid increase in 00:01:24
drug-resistant bacteria. 00:01:29
We're at the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control in Stockholm. 00:01:31
Stefan Normark and Birgitta Henriques are working to better understand how bacteria 00:01:36
become resistant to medicines. 00:01:41
They say it's a natural phenomenon reinforced by other circumstances. 00:01:43
Antibiotic resistance is an evolutionary phenomenon selected by antibiotics, so if you go out 00:01:48
there in the soil and in the water, you find antibiotic resistance. 00:01:53
But some antibiotic resistance traits is very complex. 00:02:00
It has evolved over many, many years. 00:02:04
It's DNA that is picked up and recombined, and then you have mutations on top of that, 00:02:07
and then you create new features. 00:02:14
So we make evolution to go much more rapid with antibiotic selection, much more rapid 00:02:16
than what is naturally occurring. 00:02:22
Together with other European scientists, the team in Stockholm is working to discover an 00:02:27
elusive code, namely how resistance is genetically transferred to bacteria. 00:02:31
Pneumococcus express pili is a bacteria that causes pneumonia and septicemia, and it's 00:02:38
a major killer of children under five years old. 00:02:43
It's also resistant to many penicillin-based treatments. 00:02:46
Resistance can come about in one of two ways, either through a mutation in chromosomes or 00:02:50
a change in the bacteria's DNA structure. 00:02:54
In the latter case, the bacterium can receive the resistance gene from a dead bacterium, 00:02:58
from another living bacterium that transfers small pieces of DNA called plasmids, or from 00:03:03
a virus that transfers the resistance gene from one bacterium to another. 00:03:10
Since the bacterium is resistant, it can defend itself against antibiotics molecules 00:03:15
in four ways. 00:03:19
The antibiotics molecules might simply be unable to enter the strengthened bacterium, 00:03:21
or the molecules enter but are forced out again, the so-called pump effect. 00:03:26
They might be neutralized by surrounding enzymes, or disintegrated by other enzymes. 00:03:34
So how can scientists get around these defenses and destroy the bacteria? 00:03:43
Staffan and Birgitta are just two of around 30 European scientists working on the GRACE 00:03:49
project. 00:03:54
It's aimed at combating resistance in respiratory diseases like bronchitis and pneumonia. 00:03:55
We think that the lower respiratory tract infections are very important, and specifically 00:04:04
for the antibiotic resistance development, in that you try to treat a lot of lower respiratory 00:04:08
tract infections with antibiotics. 00:04:13
And it's very important that you really have the right diagnosis, and that you really have 00:04:16
the right indications for using antibiotics. 00:04:20
This hospital near Antwerp in Belgium is at the centre of the GRACE project. 00:04:25
Scientists are now able to better identify MRSA bacteria, which can cause a number of 00:04:29
respiratory infections and can resist antibiotics such as penicillin. 00:04:34
The complex process, including taking samples from the patient's throat and amplifying their 00:04:39
DNA, allows researchers to obtain a photograph of the genetical identification of the MRSA 00:04:43
bacteria. 00:04:50
It takes just six hours, compared with up to four days in conventional microbiology. 00:04:51
Instead of receiving a short-term prescription, the patient is isolated, so he or she cannot 00:04:56
transmit the bacteria to others. 00:05:01
Dr. Man Gosens is the GRACE project coordinator. 00:05:03
We're looking at human genomics, and the reason why we're doing this is because we know that 00:05:06
some patients, irrespective of antibiotic treatment, will have a worse outcome, may 00:05:11
even die of this infection, for instance in the lungs. 00:05:16
And so therefore some patients are genetically at risk, there are genetic risk factors. 00:05:21
What we're trying to do now is to identify the genes that are associated with an increased 00:05:25
worsening of the disease with respiratory infections, and therefore try to prevent 00:05:31
patients' worsening from these kinds of infections. 00:05:38
Another way of fighting resistance is developing new antibiotic compounds. 00:05:42
The Centre for Protein Engineering at the University of Liège is involved in the UR-INTEFAR 00:05:46
project. 00:05:51
They're looking for new ways to weaken penicillin-resistant bacteria. 00:05:52
Professor Bernard Jory and his colleagues have created a 3D representation of one of 00:05:57
the enzymes forming the bacteria's protective coating. 00:06:02
We're studying this enzyme because it's resistant to antibiotics. 00:06:09
We've isolated its gene, we've produced large quantities of the enzymes. 00:06:13
We can carry out a thorough study of its properties. 00:06:18
At the same time, we've passed the enzyme to the crystallographers to create crystals 00:06:24
and use these to make three-dimensional structures. 00:06:28
The 3D structures give us the enzyme's cartography. 00:06:32
Now we're trying to understand why this enzyme became resistant, obviously by comparing the 00:06:37
resistant enzyme with the one which was sensitive to the antibiotic. 00:06:42
There is another line of attack against antibiotic resistance, information. 00:06:50
The Swedish Strategic Programme for the Rational Use of Antimicrobial Agents was founded in 00:06:55
1995. 00:07:00
One of its aims is informing people in Sweden and further afield about the dangers of over-prescription 00:07:01
and over-consumption of antibiotics. 00:07:07
The information to the public is one of the most important things that you could do. 00:07:10
You should educate people, mothers, parents, about what is an antibiotic, what does it 00:07:15
do, when should you use it and when should you not use it, so that the expectations from 00:07:24
the patients when they go to a doctor is not wrong. 00:07:31
A recent poll suggested only about 40% of EU citizens knew antibiotics were useless 00:07:37
against a virus such as the common cold. 00:07:43
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
627
Fecha:
25 de julio de 2007 - 8:29
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
07′ 47″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
448x336 píxeles
Tamaño:
39.66 MBytes

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