The microbiome remains to be a field of surprises for science. This immense ecosystem of microbes (viruses, micro organism and fungi, amongst others) that populates the gut and different components of the physique, helps people in capabilities as primary as defending themselves in opposition to exterior pathogens or metabolizing some meals. But the scientific group continues attempting to obviously describe every thing that occurs there and precisely how the inhabitants of that large little dwelling world behave. A examine lately revealed within the journal International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, has delved into the depths of this microbial universe and has found a brand new antibiotic resistance gene hidden in micro organism within the microbiome. The analysis means that this microbial universe within the gut could also be a reservoir of resistant genes with the power to leap from one micro organism to a different.
The discovery illuminates a brand new unknown nook of the advanced human microbiome and, on the similar time, sheds data on one of many best well being threats dealing with the trendy world: superbacteria. Microbes proof against antibiotics trigger 1.7 million deaths a 12 months worldwide and, in accordance with a projection revealed within the journal The Lancet final September, might kill greater than 39 million folks straight and 169 million not directly (on account of affiliation with different pathologies) within the subsequent quarter of a century.
The analysis recognized a brand new gene (npmC) with the power to neutralize the motion of aminoglycosides, a household of antibiotics used to deal with severe bacterial infections. Scientists discovered this enzyme in an inhospitable place in human and animal microbiomes in China and Canada: it was hidden in non-culturable micro organism whose full genomes are unknown. “We cannot grow 98% of the bacteria in the world, we cannot grow them in the laboratory for various reasons (because they take months to grow, because they feed on other bacteria, because the laboratory conditions are toxic to them…) . We know them only from genomic information [parcial] that we extract from feces,” explains the examine writer, Bruno González-Zorn, director of the Antimicrobial Resistance Unit on the Complutense University of Madrid and advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on this discipline.
From these genomic knowledge of unknown operate collected in animal and human samples from China and Canada, the researchers had been capable of synthesize these partial gene sequences within the laboratory and examine and perceive their habits. “We saw that by expressing these genes in a bacteria in the laboratory, they confer high levels of resistance to this family of antibiotics, aminoglycosides, which are widely used in intensive care units,” explains the scientist. Specifically, what this gene does, the microbiologist factors out, is to place within the ribosome, which is a construction of the bacterial cell, a molecule (a methyl group) that bodily prevents these antibiotics from becoming a member of the ribosome and performing their antibacterial operate. .
“We are beginning to discover the dark matter of the intestine. The microbiome is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes to be discovered,” says González-Zorn. Researchers are analyzing new households of genes with the power to beat the impact of antibiotics and, in accordance with the UCM microbiologist, there are already worldwide scientific teams working “to prevent the creation of that methyl group or to resensitize that bacteria.”
More genomic surveillance
However, many mysteries stay to be revealed concerning the function that the microbiome performs in antibiotic resistance, the skilled admits: “Techniques still do not allow us to know in depth the composition of the human microbiome. “The entire genome of all bacteria or bacteria that are present in very small numbers is not known.” In this sense, the microbiologist focuses on reinforcing genomic surveillance to tackle one of the great global threats to health: “The discovery of NpmC as a new mechanism of resistance to aminoglycosides is a wake-up call to intensify genomic surveillance and reinforce global strategies to control antimicrobial resistance from the perspective One Health [un enfoque integral para equilibrar y optimizar la salud humana, animal y medioambiental]”.
María del Mar Tomás, microbiologist on the University Hospital Complex of A Coruña and spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC), highlights that the brand new antibiotic resistance gene found “has been found in non-pathogenic bacteria and must be taken into account. realize that it can reach the clinical setting.” That is, leaping from a non-harmful micro organism to a pathogenic one and making that infection-causing microbe proof against that household of antibiotics. “It is very difficult to prevent this gene from reaching the clinic, but this study can be used for the development of new aminoglycosides or antibiotics that avoid this resistance mechanism. It is also necessary to analyze which mobile elements can transmit this gene from one bacteria to another to avoid transmission. But more studies of the genomic environment of this gene are required,” displays the microbiologist, who has not participated on this analysis.
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