Staphylococcus aureus on blood agarWIKIMEDIA, HANSNDuring microbial infections, the battle between a drug and a pathogen determines whether a patient will be cured. When extending the metaphor of drug resistance as an arms race between bacteria and antibiotics, however, the bacterial genome is the true battleground.
When faced with antibiotics, bacteria employ several evasive tactics. These include switching genetic sequences to mutate target sites on proteins and changing gene-expression patterns. Less drug-specific mechanisms, such as thickening cell walls or increasing the expression of efflux pumps (which can quickly clear drugs), are also common.
Using computational approaches and laboratory experiments, scientists are now trying to model such molecular defenses in an effort to eventually make drugs that are less likely to incite antibiotic resistance.
Efforts to make new antibiotics that are effective against resistance—yet less likely to incite their own—have been in place for several years. “But the push to make that part of a drug discovery program at the very earliest stages has come about approximately in the last five to ...
