In their fight against antibiotics, bacteria gain an advantage, becoming more resistant to antibiotic attacks. But new Paper published in PLoS Biology It is suggested that computer models could contribute to making more targeted antibiotics, while reducing the risk of bacteria becoming more resistant to antibiotics.
According to the research authors, these laser-like antibiotics can attack specific bacteria in specific areas of our bodies once they are established, reducing our overall contact with antibiotic medications and thus reducing the chance that bacteria throughout our bodies will become resistant to them. .
“Many biomedical challenges are incredibly complex, and computer models are emerging as a powerful tool to address such problems,” Jason Babin, study author and professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia, said in an article. press release. “We hope that these computational models of molecular networks in bacteria will help us develop new strategies for treating infections.”
Antibiotic adaptations
When we take antibiotic medications, we open the door to bacteria inside our bodies AdaptsDeveloping resistance to antibiotics. Due to the widespread use of antibiotic drugs in modern medicine today, dangerous bacteria are increasingly developing resistance to antibiotics, with these drugs weakening their ability to ward off disease.
To address this problem, a team of researchers created a series of computer models of dangerous bacteria, then analyzed the models and identified their common metabolic features. Their analysis revealed a series of metabolic features that they can use to make customizable antibiotics, allowing them to target specific bacteria in specific parts of the body, rather than targeting bacteria throughout the body.
By reducing our contact with antibiotics, these targeted therapies can replace non-targeted therapies, which attack a wide range of bacteria.
Read more: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria: what they are and how scientists fight them
An alternative to broad spectrum bacterial treatments
Using a type of computer model called genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction (GENRE), the researchers discovered that some metabolic traits are common to some bacteria, such as stomach bacteria.
“Using our computer models, we found that bacteria that live in the stomach have unique properties,” Emma Glass, study author and biomedical engineering student at the University of Virginia, said in a press release. “These properties could be used to guide the design of targeted antibiotics, which we hope will one day slow the emergence of resistant infections.”
By testing this approach in the laboratory, the study authors showed that targeted antibiotics can limit the survival and spread of stomach bacteria, suggesting their potential as a precision medical treatment.
“We still have a lot to do to test these ideas for bacteria and other types of infections,” Babin said in the press release. “But this work shows the amazing promise of data science and computational modeling to address some of the most important problems in biomedical research.”
Read more: Coronavirus (COVID-19) and drug-resistant germs are a scary combination
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Sam Walters is a journalist who covers archaeology, paleontology, ecology and evolution for Discover, as well as a variety of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.