Causes of antibiotic resistance crisis:
Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria mutate and become resistant to the
antibiotics used to treat the infection they caused. The more antibiotics are used, the
more chance there is for bacteria to develop resistance. This misuse causes bacterial
mutation, giving rise to resistance of antibiotics. Antibiotics, which are just molecules, cannot
evolve or mutate to counter the resistance due to antibiotics being a much broader spectrum
and able to work against various bacterial species, a doctor doesn’t need to know the exact
species causing an illness to prescribe the correct treatment. “Nature never stands still, and
as new antibiotics are put to work strains of microbes that are resistant to them inevitably
emerge.”, humans are not the only source enabling resistance, nature itself produces
microbes that can create resistance before antibiotics are even able to be utilised clinically.
Lastly for the crisis is that many infections are caused by viruses, so antibiotics are
ineffective.
Why is it a problem:
Antibiotic resistance is problematic due to the reliance. These drugs are a required course of
treatment implemented after routine procedures such as: setting broken bones, basic
operations, even chemotherapy and animal health all rely on access to antibiotics that work.
Not only this but for the NHS itself it is the affordable and straightforward treatment plan to
provide for patients. If antibiotics can no longer be used the only other option is expensive
medicines. This will increase health care costs as well as the economic burden on families
and societies.
Why might bacteriophages be suitable alternative and why might they not be:
Bacteriophages are extremely specific, high specificity of phage means that resistance will
occur only in the bacteria that it targets whereas antibiotics are able to spread within bacteria
they were not intended to target. It's now easier to identify the species of bacteria someone
is infected with due to advancement in technology, as well as this combining different types
of phage can be used to treat certain bacteria. Doctors can treat certain bacteria and a wider
range of them with even just one phage type. There are many positives to bacteriophages
that antibiotics are unable to do such as evolving to counter the bacterial resistance. If phage
evolve unsuccessfully, it only means that the bacteria will become more susceptible to
antibiotics allowing doctors to keep utilising them within treatment plans.
However, because of their unique nature, it is difficult to standardise bacteriophages due to
the self-replication being solely dependent on the density of the target bacteria. This
unfortunately creates a barrier in further development of phage therapies research in the
West as pharmaceutical companies are unable to regulate treatments of this type.
How might CRISPR gene-editing techniques be used to combat antibiotic resistance:
CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful and precise tool with the potential to be very helpful in
eliminating antibiotic resistance due to its ability to cut and remove. This technique works like a
pair of "molecular scissors" which is used to remove the DNA sequence relating to the antibiotic
resistant gene in a target DNA sequence. This ensures that the bacteria is disabled and killed from
within, which means that good bacteria will not be harmed in the process. This method has been
proven to be highly effective as shown in the experiment mentioned in the article, where 99.9% of the
targeted bacteria were killed. However, an issue with this method is that it is unknown if bacteria can
become resistant to CRISPR-Cas9 technology, consequently it is possible that the technology can be
proved less effective than originally proposed.
In your opinion, what is the best option for combating antibiotic resistance? Why do
you think this?
Overall, I believe that phage therapy is the most promising option for combating antibiotic resistance.
One of the reasons for this is that it would be slightly easier to carry out compared to the CRISPR
gene-editing technique, as it requires less complicated technology.
There is also more evidence that phage therapy is effective as it has been around much
longer compared to the CRISP gene-editing technique which is still a relatively new concept.
Bacteriophages are also very specific which means that only the bacteria it affects has the
chance of becoming resistant. This also means that specific bacteriophages could be used to treat
specific diseases which will help reduce chances of bacterial resistance occurring.
They will also be able to prolong the use of current antibiotics and are also widely available.
Sources used:
Lyon, R (2020). Antibiotics are failing – could phage therapy hold the key to
stopping antibiotic resistant superbugs?,02/09/2022,
https://bsac.org.uk/antibiotics-are-failing-could-phage-therapy-hold-the-key-to-
stopping-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs/
Pardo, E (2021). CRISPR-Cas9: A weapon against antibiotic-resistant
superbugs?,05/09/2022,https://www.dw.com/en/crispr-cas9-a-weapon-against-
antibiotic-resistant-superbugs/a-59778315#:~:text=Science-,CRISPR%2DCas9%3A
%20A%20weapon%20against%20antibiotic%2Dresistant%20superbugs%3F,a
%20new%20study%20has%20found
University of Plymouth (2020). How do we solve the antibiotic resistance crisis?,
29/08/2022, https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/discover/how-do-we-solve-the-antibiotic-
resistance-crisis
