Revisiting the restriction of antibiotics
2015-06-25
(Press-News.org) Antibiotic resistance, and multi-drug resistance, is a major public health threat. A new study publishing in PLOS Computational Biology finds conditions where restricting certain antibiotics may increase the frequency of multiple drug resistance.
Uri Obolski and Prof. Lilach Hadany and colleagues used a mathematical model and electronic medical records data to show that drug restriction may also lead to results opposite of those desired. Restriction might facilitate the spread of resistant pathogens, due to ineffective treatment with antibiotics that have high resistance frequencies.
If bacterial spread between patients is significant, the advantages of deliberately using the restricted antibiotics can outweigh the disadvantages, and lead to fewer instances of bacteria resistant to all available drugs in the long term as well as more effective treatment in the short term. These results have important implications for drug usage strategies and lead to rethinking the optimal ways of minimizing multiple drug resistance.
The study was performed by means of mathematical modeling, relying on data from the literature and from estimates of drug resistance using blood culture results of patients from Rabin Medical Center, Israel. Further clinical investigation, examining cultures of other infections and performing more clinical research will help ascertain and generalize the optimal conditions for drug restriction.
INFORMATION:
All works published in PLOS Computational Biology are Open Access, which means that all content is immediately and freely available. Use this URL in your coverage to provide readers access to the paper upon publication: http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004340
Press-only preview: https://www.plos.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pcbi.10043401.pdf
Contact: Lilach Hadany
Address: Tel Aviv University
Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants
Ramat Aviv
Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel
Phone: 972-3-6409831
Email: lhadany@post.tau.ac.il
Citation: Obolski U, Stein GY, Hadany L (2015) Antibiotic Restriction Might Facilitate the Emergence of Multi-drug Resistance. PLoS Comput Biol 11(6):e1004340. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004340
Funding: This research has been supported in part by the Israeli Science Foundation 1568/13 (LH), and by a fellowship from the Manna Program in Food Safety and Security (UO). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
About PLOS Computational Biology
PLOS Computational Biology features works of exceptional significance that further our understanding of living systems at all scales through the application of computational methods. All works published in PLOS Computational Biology are Open Access. All content is immediately available and subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. Copyright is retained. For more information follow @PLOSCompBiol on Twitter or contact ploscompbiol@plos.org.
About PLOS
PLOS is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization founded to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-06-25
This news release is available in Japanese.
Researchers studying poppy plants -- the natural source of pain-relieving alkaloids, such as morphine and codeine -- have identified a fusion gene that facilitates important, back-to-back steps in the plant's morphine-producing pathway. These findings, which build upon recent efforts to engineer the morphine biosynthesis pathway in yeast, complete the metabolic pathway for morphine and pave the way for cheaper, safer routes to producing the economically important drug without the need for cultivating poppy fields. For about ...
2015-06-25
This news release is available in Japanese.
Researchers have figured out a way to pump more light farther along an optical fiber, offering engineers a potential solution to the so-called "capacity crunch" that threatens to limit bandwidth on the Web. These findings, which represent a step toward a faster and vaster Internet, show that silica fibers -- the hair-like wires that form the basis of fiber-optic communication -- can handle a lot more data than researchers had originally estimated. Normally, information traveling through an optical fiber is subject to nonlinear ...
2015-06-25
The relentless flow of a glacier may seem unstoppable, but a team of UK and US researchers have shown that during some calving events - when an iceberg breaks off into the ocean - the glacier moves rapidly backward and downward, causing the characteristic glacial earthquakes which until now have been poorly understood.
This new insight into glacier behaviour should enable scientists to measure glacier calving remotely and will improve the reliability of models that predict future sea-level rise in a warming climate.
The research is published today in Science Express. ...
2015-06-25
Scientists at the University of York and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Australia have made a key genetic discovery in poppies, paving the way for more effective painkillers.
The discovery, published in the latest issue of Science, reveals the long sought after gene that is seen as a critical gateway step in the synthesis of the morphinan class of alkaloids, which include the painkiller drugs morphine and codeine.
The gene, called STORR, is only found in poppy species that produce morphinans. The STORR gene evolved when two other genes encoding oxidase and reductase enzymes ...
2015-06-25
Electrical engineers have broken key barriers that limit the distance information can travel in fiber optic cables and still be accurately deciphered by a receiver. Photonics researchers at the University of California, San Diego have increased the maximum power -- and therefore distance -- at which optical signals can be sent through optical fibers. This advance has the potential to increase the data transmission rates for the fiber optic cables that serve as the backbone of the internet, cable, wireless and landline networks. The research is published in the June 26 issue ...
2015-06-25
PITTSBURGH--Scientific controversies, from problems replicating results - such as with the now debunked association between autism and MMR vaccines - to researcher misconduct and sensationalism, have led to speculation of "trouble at the lab," as the Economist put it.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands recently convened top scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology and other leading institutions to examine ways to return to ...
2015-06-25
PITTSBURGH, June 18, 2015 - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have devised a computational model that could enhance understanding, diagnosis and treatment of pressure ulcers related to spinal cord injury. In a report published online in PLOS Computational Biology, the team also described results of virtual clinical trials that showed that for effective treatment of the lesions, anti-inflammatory measures had to be applied well before the earliest clinical signs of ulcer formation.
Pressure ulcers affect more than 2.5 million Americans annually ...
2015-06-25
Chloroplasts, better known for taking care of photosynthesis in plant cells, play an unexpected role in responding to infections in plants, researchers at UC Davis and the University of Delaware have found.
When plant cells are infected with pathogens, networks of tiny tubes called stromules extend from the chloroplasts and make contact with the cell's nucleus, the team discovered. The tubes likely deliver signals from the chloroplast to the nucleus that induce programmed cell death of infected cells and prepare other cells to resist infection. The work is published online ...
2015-06-25
Magnolias are prized for their large, colorful, fragrant flowers. Does the attractive, showy tree also harbor a potent cancer fighter?
Yes, according to a growing number of studies, including one from VA and the University of Alabama at Birmingham that is now online in the journal Oncotarget.
The study focused on squamous cell head and neck cancers, a scourge among those who use tobacco and alcohol. According to the National Cancer Institute, at least 3 in 4 head and neck cancers are caused by the use of tobacco and alcohol. The cancers have only a 50 percent survival ...
2015-06-25
Without new conservation efforts, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could lose up to 20 percent of its forests, unleashing a 60 percent increase in carbon emissions, says a new study by researchers at the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.
Published by PLOS ONE, the study explores Central Africa's tropical forests, which are among the world's largest carbon reserves. While these forests have historically experienced low deforestation rates, pressures to clear land are growing due to development, foreign investment in agriculture, and ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Revisiting the restriction of antibiotics
