40
ANTIBIOTIC
RESISTANCE
&
STEWARDSHIP
How 'predatory bacteria' can help fight
antibiotic resistance
By Megan Knowles
R
esearchers are exploring how germ-eating microbes
can be used to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
according to NPR.
Microbes that eat microbes are found in nearly every ecosys-
tem on earth, said Brad Ringeisen, PhD, deputy director of
the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency. The agency is funding research to
determine whether these predatory bacteria can be used to
fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Lab studies the agency funded indicate predatory bacteria can at-
tack tuberculosis, the plague and deadly antibiotic-resistant germs.
The researchers looked at Bdellovibrio, a bacterium that can
attack common germs six times its size.
"Bdellovibrio ended up preying upon 145 of the 168 hu-
man pathogens we tested, which is pretty remarkable," Dr.
Ringeisen said.
The Bdellovibrio latches onto its prey with multiple mecha-
nisms, and germs don't seem to develop resistance to it.
But predatory bacteria is not likely to become a replacement
for antibiotics, said Liz Sockett, PhD, a professor of bacterial
genetics at Nottingham University in the U.K. If physicians gave
patients large doses of this bacteria, they would develop an im-
mune response to it that would halt future treatment attempts.
But the strategy could help if given as a one-off preventive
treatment before an expected germ warfare attack or gicen to
a patient with an infection that doesn't respond to antibiotics,
microbial geneticist Nancy Connell, PhD, told NPR. n
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