eLife: Protect the microbiota necessary to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

A study published today in the journal eLife suggests that protecting the microbiota may be essential to contain the spread of harmful, drug-resistant bacteria

Trillions of bacteria live in the human body, and more and more evidence shows that this microbiome is vital to human health

Antibiotics are a key tool for treating harmful bacterial infections, but they can also damage the microbiome

"The use of antibiotics may also lead to the emergence of beneficial and harmful bacterial strains that allow them to survive antibiotic genetic mutations," explained lead author David Smith, a doctoral student at the Pasteur Institute and CESP laboratory (Inserm/University of Versailles) Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (USVQ)), France

By simulating the interaction of harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria with the microbiota, and how the use of antibiotics alters these interactions, Smith and his colleagues showed that the use of antibiotics played a huge role in increasing the abundance of resistant pathogens

"We have shown a trade-off.

Next, the research team simulated how different prevention strategies can effectively prevent the spread of resistant bacteria, including Clostridium difficile, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and Multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae

"Our research shows how important it is to consider the protective effects of healthy microbiota when designing strategies to reduce the spread of resistant bacterial strains," concludes co-senior author Lulla Opatowski, who is Professor of Mathematical Epidemiology at UVSQ and a senior researcher in the Epidemiology and Antibiotic Evasion Modeling Group of the Pasteur Institute

https://elifesciences.

DOI

10.

Article title

Microbiome-pathogen interactions drive epidemiological dynamics of antibiotic resistance: a modelling study applied to nosocomial pathogen control