June 3, 2010
UNIT 4: EvolutionGram-Negative Bacteria May Be the Next Big Threat
Though MRSA gets all the press, scientists find the rise in cases of hospital-based infections by Gram-negative bacteria worrying. Though incidences of infection by these bacteria currently occur at much lower rates than incidences of MRSA infections, those in the medical profession are concerned by the lack of drugs able to combat the infections by Gram-negative bacteria that do occur.
Although there currently exist drugs to combat MRSA infections, there are hardly any antibiotics that can fight an infection by Gram-negative bacteria. If a severe infection does occur, doctors must rely on only two drugs&mdah;developed in the 1940s—that were taken off the market decades ago due to concerns about nerve and kidney damage. Because MRSA infections occur at a much higher rate and are not confined to hospitals, as Gram-negative bacteria-based infections currently are, the pharmaceutical industry has focused their research on drugs to combat MRSA infections. One obstacle pharmaceutical companies must overcome is that Gram-negative bacteria infections are particularly hard to fight with antibiotics due to the configuration of the bacteria's cell structures.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicate that of the 1.7 million hospital-based bacteria infections that occur each year, 99,000 result in death. In Europe, it is calculated that two-thirds of the 25,000 deaths per year caused by hospital-based bacterial infections can be attributed to Gram-negative bacteria.
Though infections by Gram-negative bacteria have mostly remained under the radar, pharmaceutical companies and medical researchers are beginning to take action. Earlier this year, researchers at a Swiss biotech company called Polyphor and scientists at the University of Zurich announced they had developed a new class of antibiotics to fight infections by Gram-negative bacteria. These antibiotics effectively work by deactivating a protein necessary for the formation of the bacteria's outer cell membrane. Continued breakthroughs such as this provide hope that Gram-negative bacteria infections may not end up being the public health nightmare that MRSA has in some cases become.