Drug Resistance-a radical new approach?

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One of the most frustrating things about medical research is drug resistance. You know the old story- clever people spend years developing a new antibiotic, only for the target to become resistant in a few years. Back to life, back to reality as the old Soul to Soul song would have it. The way bacteria do it is rather clever and we include a detailed link here* for those who are interested. Basically, if you’re a bacterium resistance is all about changing your peripheral bits while keeping your core functions stable.

It’s a moot point whether viruses are alive or not; but they certainly obey Darwinian laws of natural selection, building resistance to hostile drugs. One such is herpes, which can do immense damage to us, as sufferers will know. Now a team at Lund University led by Professor Alex Evilevitch is trying a new approach-target their attack on the core functions, which by definition the virus can’t change. Here we have a report from Mariella Attard of Forbes which outlines the work.*

We at LSS always like it when someone tries to solve an old problem in a new way. Maybe it’s applying the wonders of AI to drug databases and throwing up a new antibiotic. Maybe it’s suddenly realising that birds are dinosaurs, they’ve been living alongside us for millions of years. You always get something new when you look at facts from a different perspective.

We thank Mr Peter Seymour of Hertfordshire for this story If you want to help with the problem of drug resistance visit the website of antibiotic research uk*

here’s how bacteria resist

Resistance mechanisms

here’s the Forbes article

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariellaattard/2020/08/03/resistance-is-futile-is-this-herpes-treatment-the-future-for-a

#drugresistance #herpes #virus #bacteria

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