Antibiotic resistance

Antibiotics have revolutionised the treatment of infectious bacterial diseases. However with antibiotic use, antibiotic resistant bacteria will eventually evolve, as the few bacteria able to survive exposure to these compounds grow and spread. This means that, unlike other types of drugs, poor or excessive use of antibiotics can result in a total loss of their effectiveness. This problem has been addressed in two ways; firstly the continuous development of new antibiotics (an arms race with the bacteria), and secondly by using antibiotics more wisely to reduce the chance of resistance emerging.

The primary focus of antibiotic resistance research at KIT Biomedical Research is currently the treatment of tuberculosis, a disease caused by a slow growing bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).  Mixtures of three or more antibiotics, if given for six months or longer, can result in effective cure with little or no chance of resistance developing. But these relatively complex and long treatment protocols have been poorly adhered to in certain parts of the world leading to the development of highly resistant bacterial strains. If they spread these resistant strains make the standard treatment ineffective, requiring the use of more expensive, more toxic, and less effective second line drugs.

We study the mechanisms that lead to resistance and develop methods for detecting resistant strains. This information can be used to identify specific strains or mixtures of antibiotics that are more likely to result in the development of resistance and may help to design more robust (and effective?) treatment protocols.