6 FACTORS CAUSING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a major cause of disease and mortality around the world. Antibiotics were assumed to have won the war against microbes when they were initially introduced in the early 1900s. Most pathogenic bacteria appear to be capable of developing antimicrobial resistance to at least some antimicrobial agents. Because so many bacteria have developed resistance to many antimicrobial drugs, the battle appears to be shifting in favor of bacteria. Infectious diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality around the world today. Lower respiratory infection, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, and malaria are among the top 10 causes of morbidity and mortality, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) assessment of these diseases.

         
MACHANISM OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE:

      Antimicrobial resistance mechanisms can all be classified into four categories:

•   Drug uptake limitation

•   Drug target modification

•   Drug inactivation

•   Active drug efflux

      Intrinsic resistance may make use of limiting uptake, drug inactivation, and drug efflux; Drug target alteration, drug inactivation, and drug efflux are examples of acquired antibiotic resistance mechanisms. The sorts of mechanisms utilised by gramme negative bacteria and gramme positive bacteria differ due to changes in structure and other factors. Gram negative bacteria employ all four primary mechanisms, whereas gramme positive bacteria use limiting drug uptake less frequently (because they lack an LPS outer membrane) and lack the capacity for some types of drug efflux mechanisms.

Drug uptake limitation:

      As previously stated, bacteria have a natural difference in their capacity to inhibit the uptake of antimicrobial medicines. In gram-negative bacteria, the LPS layer's structure and functions operate as a barrier to particular chemicals. This confers intrinsic resistance to a subset of major antimicrobial drugs on those bacteria. Bacteria without a cell wall, such as Mycoplasma and related species, are innately resistant to all cell wall-targeting medicines, including -lactams and glycopeptides. Porin channels are frequently used by bacteria with broad outer membranes to allow chemicals to enter the cell. Porin alterations can reduce drug uptake in two ways:

•   By reducing the quantity of porins present

•   By changing the selectivity of the porin channel through mutations

Drug target modification:

      Antimicrobial medications can target a variety of components in the bacterial cell, and the bacteria can modify those targets to enable resistance to those drugs. Changes in the structure and/or number of PBPs are one mechanism of resistance to -lactam medicines, which are virtually exclusively employed by gramme positive bacteria (penicillin-binding proteins). PBPs are transpeptidases that help cells build peptidoglycan in their walls. The amount of medication that can bind to that target is affected by the number of PBPs present.

Drug inactivation:

      Bacteria inactivate pharmaceuticals in one of two ways:

•   By degrading the drug itself 

•   By transferring a chemical group to the drug

Active drug efflux:

       Efflux pump genes are chromosomally encoded in bacteria. Some are expressed constitutively, while others are triggered or overexpressed in response to particular environmental stimuli or when a suitable substrate is present (high-level resistance is usually achieved through a mutation that alters the transport channel). The efflux pumps are largely responsible for removing harmful molecules from the bacterial cell, however many of them can transport a wide range of substances (multi-drug [MDR] efflux pumps). Many of these pumps' resistance capabilities are impacted by the carbon source available.

6 FACTORS CAUSING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE:

•     Antibiotics are overprescribed

•     Patients who do not complete their antibiotic course

•      Overusing antibiotics in cattle and fish aquaculture,

•      As well as a lack of infection control in health-care settings

•      Poor sanitation and hygiene

•      There haven't been any new antibiotics found in a long time.

TOP PRIORITIES TO FIGHT ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN 2022:

ü Cut down on the amount of antibiotics in human medicine.

ü  Improve utilisation of animal antibiotics. 

ü  Repair the antibiotics market, which is in a state of disarray...

ü  Make sure there's enough money for stewardship and innovation.

ü  Maintain a global perspective.

DO IT ALL!!STAY SAFE