Dealing with drug-resistant pathogens

Subject: Science & Tech

Section :Biotechnology

Context:

Pathogens develop drug resistance and we need to find newer drugs against which they have no defence.

Antimicrobial peptide (AMP):

These are peptides that attach themselves to the body of the pathogen and prevent it from entering our cells.
Peptides are small chains of amino acids.
AMPs are produced by human bodies, as also other living beings.
Today, about 5,000 AMPs are known, and catalogued.
AMPs are proving to be smarter than invading pathogens.
These peptides are effective, broad-spectrum antimicrobials that establish themselves as new therapeutic agents, and hold the potential to kill gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, fungi, enclosed viruses, and even mutated or malignant cells.
Unlike antibiotics, AMPs are effective against viruses too.

The issue with AMPs:

The problem is, how to produce AMPs.
It is possible to chemically synthesise AMPs. Another option is to take the DNA in organisms and coax it to produce the peptides.
But both are time-consuming, costly and with no guaranteed output.

Bacteriophages

These are viruses that get into the bacteria and lyse them — break them open inside out. Bacteriophage therapy has great potential as an alternative to antimicrobials.
Optimal conditions of phage use, including their concentration, the time and sequence of administration and their combination with the appropriate antibiotics, are likely to establish the effectiveness and reliability of this medicine.
- However, may not be a long-term solution as bacteria can evolve resistance to bacteriophages too.

Tackling AMR: Need for a deeper approach:

Researchers are working on various deeper approaches to finding the solution to the problem of AMR. Some of them include:

Some pathogens enter a host (our) cell and disarm the immune system by secreting certain proteins. A better understanding of this mechanism would help in stopping it.

Understanding the fundamental principles of cell-intrinsic defence and immune dysregulation that drive pathogenesis.

The goal is to identify common and distinct themes in host defence using various infectious disease models.

It involves the use of ‘interferon signalling pathways’.
Interferons are a type of protein released by our cells when a virus enters the cell’s vicinity and are a part of the ‘cytokine family’.

Developing technologies that can differentiate between viral and bacterial infections, limiting the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics.
Yet another strategy is for proper disposal of antibiotics and antibiotic-contaminated material, to prevent environmental contamination and the emergence of AMR.