What are some reasons bacteria are becoming more resistant to antibiotics?

Answer 1

Bacteria will evolve the molecular structures in various components to become resistant to antibiotics. For example, if an antibiotic works by competitive inhibition (ie - the antibiotic binds to the active site of the protein in it's cell membrane instead of another element the bacteria needs to survive), the bacteria may evolve an alternate molecular structure of that protein so the antibiotic won't fit in the binding site.

Answer 2

Microbes become resistant to antibiotics, disinfectants and other chemicals by a process called natural selection. When we treat a population of microbes with chemicals that we use to kill them, then not all the microbes are the same. They are different in much the same way that humans are different in a crowd; some people are bigger, and may be stronger. Some are fatter and may be able to live longer with out food. Some are thinner and may be able to run faster all get through narrower openings.

In much the same way, some microbes can live off foods that contain chemicals that other microbes cannot digest; some can stand higher temperatures and some can stand lower temperatures. In particular, most populations of microbes are very numerous, many millions or many billions. When you have so many microbes, you can be pretty sure that for any chemical that you might apply, some of them will prove tougher than others. Some might be able to break down the chemical. Some will refuse to absorb the chemical. Some can store it harmlessly in their cells. In much the same way, if you gave a lot of poisonous nuts in very hard shells to a lot of squirrels, those squirrels who could not bite through the shells would not get poisoned. They might starve if they could not find anything else to eat, say soft-shelled nuts or berries, but as soon as those poisonous hard-shelled nuts showed up, the squirrels with the weak teeth would live while the squirrels with the strong teeth would die.

Now, as a rule squirrels with weak teeth would have baby squirrels with weak teeth, so we would find pretty soon that they would not be many squirrels with strong teeth, so we could no longer kill them with hard shelled poisonous nuts. We would have to find some other way of doing it.

That is an example of selection.

It works in much the same way with microbes, bacteria and other germs. If we take a substance like penicillin and we carefully use it only when it is vitally necessary, and we look after it to avoid any spills, then very few bacteria will ever come into contact with penicillin, so most bacteria will be killed quickly if they ever get treated with penicillin. So if someone has life-threatening blood poisoning from a bacterium like say, Staphylococcus aureus, a quick treatment with penicillin could have him up and healthy in a few days. From then on his body can take over and finish the job. However, if we stop the treatment too quickly, then some of the bacteria will survive, and those that survive will be the ones that withstand penicillin the best. For that reason it is sensible to continue the treatment for a few days to make sure that none of the tougher germs live.

Also, it is a good idea not to go using the antibiotic for every little infection, even those infections where the antibiotic will not be of much use. Or for that matter we should avoid using the antibiotic carelessly so that a lot of bacteria come into contact with it, say in sinks and drains, or in the noses and throats of doctors and nurses who keep on breathing in tiny amounts of antibiotics. All those bacteria that keep getting into contact with little doses of antibiotic pretty soon get selected so that mostly the tough ones will survive.

Another very dangerous practice that should not be permitted is to use antibiotics in animal feed to encourage their growth. Many extremely valuable antibiotics have been made useless by that sort of thing, and many extremely dangerous strains of microbes have been bred and are showing up in hospitals and homes.

So, in general, resistance to antibiotics and in fact to other kinds of pesticides, such as insecticides, is often the result of people using or abusing miraculous tools in ways that favour the pests that are most resistant to them. Such abuses commonly will cause increases in resistance very quickly, sometimes in just a few years. It also becomes possible when bacteria are selected first for resistance to one kind of antibiotic and then resistance to another, that we can breed "super bugs" that are resistant to almost all our antibiotics. If we are not careful we might wind up not much better off than before we had any antibiotics at all and millions of people died from infections that sensible use of antibiotics could easily have prevented indefinitely.

Answer 3

The resistancy is written in plasmid genes. However, only few bacteria have those plasmids, therefore have an advantage. The plasmids can be transferred to another kinds of bacteria through the pilli, so that the resistancy is spread among them. This happens mainly in hospital where different kinds of bacteria get in touch.

Answer 4

Bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics mostly by the misuse of antibiotics.

For example, if a person is prescribed to take a certain antibiotic, say penicillin, for 2 weeks, many people would cease taking the penicillin after their symptoms disappeared, and would instead stockpile the antibiotic, hoping to save it for later, when it may need to be used again.

Contrary to common belief, does an antibiotic not destroy all bacteria at once, and it does not destroy bacteria randomly. The bacteria eliminated first are those which are most susceptible to the antibiotic, leaving those which are more resistant, and which carry resistant genes.

If a person only takes the prescribed antibiotic for a single week, as opposed to the prescribed two weeks, the more resistant bacteria are better able to survive and thrive, transmitting their genetic material, and thus their resistant genes, to next generations of bacteria, due to the lack of competition for resources after the elimination of the susceptible bacteria.

The resistant bacteria would eventually overrun the susceptible bacteria (if the trend continues), making the antibiotic obsolete, resulting in super resistant bacteria, such as VRSA (Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).

Additionally, genetic material which provides for bacterial resistance may also be transmitted between different species of bacteria through a process known as conjugation, where bacteria form plasmids, basically capsules of genetic material, which are transferred from one bacterium to another.

There a couple of different ways this can happen. One is through our food supply. Due to the conditions that animals kept in, they are routinely given antibiotics to ward off disease. These antibiotics get passed on to us when we eat the animals but at a lower level. Pathogens in our body that would normally be susceptible to these antibiotics become immune to them because they can tolerate the low levels in our bodies.

Lastly, because bacteria can multiply at such fast rate, they can mutate at a fast rate as well. Occasionally these mutations make them more resistant to antibiotics and so we need stronger and stronger drugs to be able to fight them.

Answer 5

They may be more common due to the improper use and abuse of antibiotics that result from poor patient education. Antibiotics are often prescribed to satisfy the patient even though they are not necessary.

Answer 6

Like all living organisms, bacteria evolve through mutations. Repeated exposure to antibiotics means that those mutations which have evolved resistance are better able to survive and pass on the antibiotic-resistant genes.

Answer 7

Widespread antibiotic use encourages natural selection of bacteria with mutations that provide resistance to these antibiotics.

Answer 8

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