Fight against Superbug, now Researchers rely on the Worms

The researchers at the University of Technology Sydney is undergoing an important mission to find ways to overcome the superbug prevalences throughout the world. Jana Soares, a researcher student taking care the worms with a combination of antibiotics and anti-microbial peptide, which is commonly used for food preservation for many days.

US student Jana Soares is following up work done at the UTS ithree institute. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Zq7eJ)

The worms are infected with the superbug which commonly called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which are resistant against many types of antibiotics. These bacteria commonly infect humans who are hospitalized for more than one week and also can be life-threatening.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Zq72o)

"This is important research because we are trying to develop treatments for patients in the future," said Soares.

"Currently we use antibiotics which are no longer used in the clinic because the bacteria have developed resistance to these antibiotics,"

"We need to find new antibiotics or new ways to reduce the microbial resistance to antibiotics,"

Jana Soares is a US student who was sent to study at postgraduate Fulbright scholarship funds to follow up previous findings by Associate Professor Cynthia Whitchurch from UTS ithree institutions.

Microscopic worms have been infected with florescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa and treated with a combination of antibiotics. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Zq7eJ)

She infecting the nematodes with glowed  strains of P. aeruginosa that will glow green under a microscope. This allows her to monitor whether there is a decrease of bacteria after the nematodes were given a combination of antibiotics. If the worm successfully survive, the researchers plan tested this model on mice before conducting clinical trials on human (if this method proves truly successful).

"This is a good stepping stone to get an idea of ​​how we could find new methods to tackle antibiotic resistance," she said.

"All the things we can do to understand how to overcome antibiotic resistance or find new antibiotics will be able to save lives,"

"Resistance to antibiotics is currently a source of concern for public health throughout the world,"

Australian citizen concerns become increasingly significant for some time following a report about a man in Victoria who died after being infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae that are resistant to antibiotic treatment.

The report, published in the Medical Journal of Australia is mentioned in detail that the 59-year-old man infected with the bacterial pneumonia for two months after being treated at St. Vincent Hospital, Melbourne due to pancreatitis. Because the bacteria are resistant to some antibiotics, the man in a short time his condition deteriorated and died five months later.

Peter Collignon, a professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the Australian National University, said the report such as this is one of the reasons why Australia needs to reduce the amount of antibiotics that they use.

"Antibiotics are the only drug that gives people the side effects, the more antibiotics we use, the more we produce and select 'bug' that are resistant to antibiotics or known by superbug," she said.

Antibiotic resistance becomes one thing we can be passed on to other family members and as society as a whole, the resistance will be transmitted from one individual to another.

Professor Collignon said the antibiotic resistance has now become a worldwide problem, although the rate in Australia is relatively low because of a good water supply, and restrictions on meat imports. However, he said that Australia uses two times more antibiotics than other countries such as the Netherlands, but there is no evidence that people become much better condition.

"We are not going to get a rating equal to China and India because of infrastructure problems and have control on who can prescribe an antibiotic and the quality of antibiotics, but we were headed in that direction." *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ABC NEWS]

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