Great article: Biofilms, infections and resistance

[Suzy]

I thought this would be good knowledge to share. Looks like they are trying to improve efficacy of Abx and understanding of infections and their mechanisms for survival.

“A chief cause of the resistance of biofilms is that bacteria on the outside of the clusters have the first shot at the nutrients that diffuse in,” said Dr. Pradeep Singh, associate professor of medicine and microbiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, the senior author of the study. “This produces starvation of the bacteria inside clusters, and severe resistance to killing.”

Also…..

Instead of well-described resistance mechanisms, like pumps that expel antibiotics from bacterial cells, the researchers found that the bacteria’s protective mechanism defended them against toxic forms of oxygen, called radicals. This mechanism jives with new findings showing that antibiotics kill by generating these toxic radicals.

The findings suggest new approaches to improve treatment for a wide range of infections.

How can we apply this knowledge to current treatment protocols? Can anyone expand on this ? How can a bacteria’s starvation alarm be inactivated ?? So many questions ❓

There’s a lot more in the article…good findings…..Here’s the link !
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237933.php

[nspiker]

Hi Suzy,

This article was also posted on lymenet, and found it very interesting, but like you, was left with only questions. There seems to be a differing opinions in the lyme community of what is the best way to disperse biofilm. Dr. F. of the lab in Az., is a big proponent of low arginine, plant-based, no fat diet. If I’m understanding this research correctly, then starving the organisms creates antibiotic resistance. I don’t know if this means we should feed the organism, and if so, with what?

Anyone with any thoughts, please chime in….
nancy

[Suzy]

Agreed Nancy, only more questions. As per this

This mechanism jives with new findings showing that antibiotics kill by generating these toxic radicals.

maybe we need to be eating TOXIC RADICALS 😆 IDK Other points of view will be interesting to see. I’m digging for more on this………
Suzy

[Suzanne]

I agree this is very thought-provoking! Thank you for sharing this great find, Suzy.

I think they need the equivalent of ’empty calories’. Their sense of starvation will be turned off because they are still consuming, but they will still starve from malnourishment.

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[Suzy]

Wow a quick search found this compound mitomycin, also mentioned were Adriamycin (27, 28), paraquat (29), menadione (30), and bleomycin (31)…interesting! never heard of these before. I haven’t fully understood this article yet but it did mention reactive oxygen radicals.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/46/7/3528.full.pdf

Wiki had some interesting things about mitomycin and what it has been found to do.
[urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitomycin][/url]

Suzy

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