Antibiotic resistance countered

US scientists believe they may have found a way to stop the growing problem of bacteria becoming resistant to current drug treatments. They have found drugs called bisphosphonates block an enzyme used by bacteria to swap genes, and acquire or spread resistance to antibiotic drugs. They also showed that interfering with the enzyme could destroy drug resistant bacteria cultured in the lab. The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.... "Whole":[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6283530.stm]

---

Related articles

New Way To Target And Kill Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria Found - Putting bacteria on birth control could stop the spread of drug-resistant microbes, and researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found a way to do just that (13.7.2007)

The new face of TB: drug resistance and HIV - Tuberculosis (TB) is back with a vengeance and it has a new face: the combination of the HIV epidemic with new strains of the disease that are resistant to the existing drugs has seen new TB cases and TB-related deaths skyrocket in the last decade (3.7.2007)

Researchers Find New Pathway to Thwart Antibiotic Resistance - Researchers at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) have new information on the structure of a key enzyme in bacteria that could lead to improved antibiotics and less antibiotic resistance (25.6.2007)

Geneticists create 'next generation' of GM crops - Researchers have created what could be the next generation of transgenic crops by inserting a gene for herbicide resistance from a bacterium into plants (31.5.2007)

Construction of cytogenetic map of the short arm of rye chromosome 1 (1RS) - Rye is commonly used in wheat breeding and improvement as a source of resistance to abiotic stress, diseases and insects (23.5.2007)