Antibiotic resistance is a problem, which causes 23,000 deaths and 2 million cases of disease each year in the United States. Over 70 nosocomial infections are resistant to at least one antibiotic.
Unfortunately, the pace of discovery of new and effective antibiotics does not meet the rapid pace of development of bacterial resistance. New research suggests that there is a chance to halt the development of resistance to antibiotics.
By infecting bacteria with mutated virus, researchers at Tel Aviv University think they may influence resistance to antibiotics. Researchers have found a way to alter the bacterial DNA by the use of the mutant viruses, which makes the bacteria more sensitive to antibiotics used for treatment of bacterial infections.
This method allows researchers to use already available antibiotics, and not to discover new groups of antibiotics.
This particular study investigated the antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (E.coli). The study may be particularly useful in hospitals, where infections may occur due to resistant bacteria.
Another study has a completely different strategy against antibiotic resistance, using computer programs and mathematical models, such as “time machine”, the software can track all genetic changes that have made bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Once you have established all the steps of genetic modification, researchers want to make bacteria to return to the state when they were not resistant to antibiotics through genetic modification.