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Antibiotics are like superhero drugs that fight off disease-causing invasive organisms called bacteria. They have revolutionised the way of treatment of diseases since their discovery, saving countless lives. Thanks to antibiotics, treating infections became way easier, and doctors could save many more people.The first antibiotic - penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, marking the beginning of the age of antibiotics.They are considered as the cornerstone of modern medicine. But nowadays the emergence and spread of the drug-resistant pathogens, which threatens our ability to treat common infections and to perform life-saving procedures (often coined as antibiotic resistance), is seemingly a large concern.
How Antibiotics work?
The introduction of antibiotics into clinical use was arguably the greatest medical breakthrough of the 20th century. In addition to treating infectious diseases, antibiotics marked a major feat making many modern medical procedures possible.
In the year 1900, Paul Ehrlich first described the concept of the ‘magic bullet’, a chemical that harms pathogens and also giving chances for the body to fight while producing antibodies. There are many other known mechanisms of action of antibiotics and a variety of bacterial cell structures can be exploited as antibiotic targets. This includes examples of the cell membrane, DNA, RNA or specific enzymes. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the antibacterial activity is essential for efficient compound selection and drug development and identifying it’s molecular target is a necessary prerequisite for bringing a new drug to the medical world and with it’s thorough accuracy.
However, the misuse of these valuable compounds (which includes the violation of dosage and over consumption) has resulted in the rapid rise of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), with some infections now being effectively untreatable or which leads to slow medical cure.
Causes of Antimicrobial Resistance crisis:
● Overuse of antibiotics
● Misuse of antibiotics (includes incomplete or incorrect dosages)
● Inadequate infection control
● Environmental factors
A Major Concern:
A global emergence crisis of antibiotic resistance which makes the most widely used antibiotics less effective against many bacterial diseases. According to the 2022 Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Surveillance System (GLASS), highlights alarming high rates of resistance in common bacteriological agents. In other words, it is now becoming almost impossible to cure frequently occurring infections.
New Antibiotics: A new age of medicines
In the current scenario of growing drug resistance in pathogens, new antibiotics are required as they say modern problems need modern solutions. Over the past decade, several antibiotics have been brought to the market. However, the vast majority represent relatively minor alterations to the well-known chemical scaffolds, in particular the β-lactams and the fluoroquinolones. Whereas these classes have been deep wells from which to draw new drugs over the past few decades, we may be reaching the limits of their safe and effective chemical diversity. It is sobering to realise that only four of these new drugs represent chemical scaffolds new to human use: linezolid, which is a completely synthetic drug; and the natural products daptomycin, a lipopeptide; fidaxomicin, a macrocyclic polyketide; and the diterpene pleuromutilin, retapamulin. None of these four represent truly novel classes of drugs though having been discovered in decades past and either repurposed for human use or resurrected from failed discovery campaigns.
Conclusion:
"Antibiotics are best used as a support to the body's own defences, not as a substitute for them."
- Lewis Thomas
The famous quote makes us ponder upon the importance of having a healthy lifestyle which leads to better precaution and better immunity to the invaders as they say “Precaution is always better than cure”, and can be a major contribution by eliminating the cause from roots leading to more sustainable health.
The efficacy of antibiotics is nowadays being threatened by the rise of antibiotic resistance. We can combat these modern concerns by analysing the nature of target pathogens and the study of their resistance can surely help in developing more effective medicines marking the age of new antibiotics for our health and for our better disease-free future!
References:
Author: Abhishek Mishra
Editor: Rohitashwa Kundu
Illustrator: Pranjal Sengupta
Reviewer: Bristi Paul
Note: The information presented in the above text is intended for educational purposes only. While it is emphasized as to not present individual opinions of the authors. Any such mention is purely figurative and does not represent HEIV's stance. Scientific facts are carefully scrutinized before they are published. Any similarity with existing literature is made with due credits by author for educational purposes only.
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