But could we turn evolution against bacteria?
It turns out that when bacteria mutate to become resistant to one antibiotic, they often become more vulnerable to a different drug. So maybe after a jab with the left, a roundhouse to the right will deliver a knockout blow.
To test this idea, researchers in Denmark dosed batches of E. coli with 23 different antibiotics, and waited for resistance to evolve. In three-quarters of the cases, the mutant germs became more susceptible to a second drug.
The work appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [Lejla Imamovic and Morten O.A. Sommer, Use of Collateral Sensitivity Networks to Design Drug Cycling Protocols That Avoid Resistance Development]
One particular combination of widely used antibiotics—gentamicin, then cefuroxime, then gentamicin again, and so on—looks like it could hold the bugs at bay indefinitely.
—Wayt Gibbs
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
