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Let me say at the outset of this post that I have a PhD in Bacteriology and admittedly less than objective when it comes to the topic of microbiology education and improving the public understanding of science. However, in today’s New York Times Science Times section there were no fewer than five articles that required some knowledge of microbiology to understand the implications about what was written.

1. Vaccination is Steady, but Pertussis is Surging
2. Really? The Claim: More Sugar Leads to More Cavities
3. Steep Drop Seen in Circumcisions in the U.S.
4. Patterns: Medicare Coverage Drives Antibiotic Use
5. Vital Signs: Nipple Piercings Add to Risk of Abscesses

While it doesn’t require a PhD to decipher the information in this article a basic understanding of microbiology would allow readers to understand the significance and future implications of the material that was presented. For example, in the article about nipple piercings; anybody who has taken an introductory microbiology class knows that bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes can cause pus-laden infections and if left untreated can result in potentially life-threatening abscess formation. Sugar and cavities? Microbiology 101 students all know that bacteria like S. mutans (that live in everyone’s mouths) ferment sugars and produce lactic acid that degrades tooth enamel and can cause cavities. And, most entry level microbiology students understand that the overuse of conventional antibiotics is largely responsible for the emergence of multiple drug resistant bacteria like multiple drug resistant S. aureus MRSA) and vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE).

The point that I am trying to make is that bacteria are all around us; some do good things like fix nitrogen to improve crop yields and produce oxygen during photosynthesis while others cause devastating acute and chronic infections. Nevertheless, the lay public is largely ignorant about the microbes on and around them. Most of my friends, many of whom have advanced degrees in their fields, don’t know the difference between a virus and a bacterium and believe that it is okay to treat a cold with antibiotics! How can people modify their behaviors to effectuate change to improve their lives if they lack a rudimentary understanding of the factors responsible for conditions that afflict them?

Don’t get me wrong—we don’t need more PhD microbiologists. However, requiring all high school biology students and maybe biology degree students to have a firm understanding of the fundamental principles of microbiology would be a great start toward improving the lives of many Americans!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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As I noted in a post a couple of days ago, the media frenzy surrounding the identification of a new beta lactamase and erythromycin inactivating enzyme in strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli was neither noteworthy nor anything to get all worked up about. For whatever reason, the media reported results of an almost year old research study. If the results of this study had serious public health implications why did it take media outlets so long to report it to the lay public? I suspect that the report was a cleverly crafted promotional campaign underwritten by pharmaceutical companies that are trying to boost sales of their antibiotics. To that end, the Pharmalot Blog reported yesterday about potential conflicts of interests for several of the study’s authors.

According to the Pharmalot post, “The study in The Lancet was funded by the European Union, as well as Wyeth and the Wellcome Trust charity, both of which are involved in producing antibiotics for treating such cases, CNN-IBN reports. Karthikeyan Kumaraswamy, the scientist who headed the study, received a travel grant from Wyeth. And David Livermore, another co-author, received conference support from numerous drugmakers and also holds stock in AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, the report continues.”

These revelations caused spokespersons from the Indian government to issue the following statement:

“This news has created a misconception and a feeling that the point of origin of the bacteria is in India. We have got the matter examined. We have come to a conclusion that this is not the right statement. After seeing the research paper, I strongly refute that hospitals in India are the source of the strain and strongly condemn naming the bacteria after New Delhi,” Director General of Health Services RK Srivastav tells CNN-IBN. “Intellectual scientific freedom is all very good but there is a conflict of interest in this research. Researchers like these are examined separately according to the code of ethics.”

Back in the day, it was commonplace to assign the city or country of origin to bacterial isolates. And, I see no reason why this should not continue. While I disagree with the Indian government’s claim that the NDM-1 strain designation will interfere with tourism in that country, I still contend that elevation of the study results to the international stage was premature and largely irresponsible. The fact that several of the study’s co-authors were or are funded by pharmaceutical companies and own stock in these companies suggest that the media frenzy may have been “stoked” for personal and corporate gains.

Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try clinical microbiology)

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I read a post today on Yahoo News entitled “Warning on New Superbugs from S. Asia.” While I initially thought that this article may contain some important news on the real and growing of multiple drug resistant bacterial pathogens, I sadly learned that it was nothing more than an sensationalistic attempt to promote the discovery of a new metallo-beta-lactamase gene bla(NDM-1) in an Indian isolate of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a Gram negative bacterium. The work was performed by a group at Cardiff University in Wales and published almost a year ago in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

There is no question that morbidity and mortality from Gram negative infections is rising and will certainly continue to increase in the future. This is because most of the work in antibacterial drug discovery in the last decade was focused on Gram positive bacteria including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE). Although new antibiotics have reached the market for these organisms, they are used judiciously, and mainly as a last resort, because of fears of emerging resistance to them among Gram positive clinical isolates. Unfortunately, developing new antibiotics against Gram negative pathogens as compared with Gram positive bacteria is much more difficult. To that end, no antibiotics of note have been discovered in recent years to treat multiple drug resistant strains of Gram negative bacteria. 

While identification of the bla (NDM-1) gene may be scientifically and biologically interesting, it will likely have little effect on the clinical treatment of Gram negative infections. This is because many Gram negative isolates are already resistant to most beta-lactam antibiotics and consequently these antibiotics are used only sparingly to treat many Gram negative infections. Regardless of the implications of the discovery of the NDM-1, what I find most troubling about the article is its title. It leads uninformed persons to believe that the world is in grave danger and that a pandemic of multiple drug resistant strains of Gram negative bacteria may be imminent.  While infections caused by multiple drug resistance strains of Gram negative bacteria are clearly on the rise, strains carrying the NDM-1 gene will not decimate the world population any time soon! In fact, the authors suggest that these strains may cause some problems in India which “already has high levels of antibiotic resistance.”

There is no doubt that informing people about the growing incidence of multiple drug resistant bacteria is a good thing. Maybe, if enough people get frightened they may be able to induce big pharmaceutical companies—many of which abandoned antibiotic drug discovery and development in the late 90s—to reinvigorate their programs. That said, it is not clear why this story got elevated to a lead story on Yahoo News since the discovery was made almost a year ago—maybe today is a slow news day? Nevertheless, the impending doom and sensationalistic tone of the article suggests that reporters who cover the life sciences need some training in microbiology. This is necessary to insure that the stories that they write about antibiotics are kept in the appropriate context and historical perspective. That said, don’t be surprised today if the sales of antibacterial products increase and the stock prices of biotechnology companies involved in antibacterial drug discovery and development spike!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!

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A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (my alma mater) genetically engineered a strain of Streptomyces platensis to overproduce the antibiotics platensimycin and platencin. They accomplished this by deleting a regulatory gene (ptmR1, whichencodes a putative GntR-like transcriptional regulator) in the antibiotic synthetic pathway that controls production. The newly engineered strain has been reported to overproduce platensimycin and platencin with yieldsof 323 ± 29 mg/L and 255 ± 30 mg/L, respectively. This represents a 100-fold increase in the yields observed with corresponding S. platensis wild type strains.

Platensimycin is the first of a new class of natural product antibiotics (with a novel mode of action) to be discovered in the past 40 years.  It exhibits strong, broad-spectrum Gram-positive antibacterial activity by selectively inhibiting cellular lipid biosynthesis. Treatment with platensimycin eradicates Staphylococcus aureus infection in mice. Because of its unique mode of action, platensimycin shows no cross-resistance to other key antibiotic-resistant strains tested, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus, vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.

Platencin, also a natural product, is chemically and biologically related but different from platensimycin. Like platensimycin, it exhibits a broad-spectrum Gram-positive antibacterial activity through inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis. And, it doesn’t exhibit cross-resistance to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci. Moreover, platencin shows potent in vivo efficacy without any observed toxicity.

Both antibiotics show promise for commercialization. While we need new antibiotics, both platensimycin and platencin target only Gram positive bacteria. Infections caused by multiple drug resistant Gram negative bacteria are threatening to overtake those caused by Gram positive in the very near future. At present, to the best of my knowledge, there are no new antibiotics in the pipeline directed against multiple drug resistant Gram negative strains.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Antibiotic Hunting!!!!!!!!

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