More than twenty thousand people die each year of antibiotic-resistant infections. Antibiotic overusing in both agricultural and human use have made things worse; rapid bio-convergence testing is our best hope for a solution, with medical technology companies making great strides in development of technology that helps detect infections.
The following outlines the viral vs bacterial infection, why we’re so concerned about antibiotic overuse, and how a rapid bv test can help us out of this mess.
Viral vs Bacterial Infection
The key difference between viral and bacterial infections is the immune response. The adaptive immune response (antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes) are responsible for making us sick, while the innate immune response (i.eCytokines like interferon gamma) determines recovery.
In viral infections, both of these responses are activated; in bacterial infections, only the innate response is activated. While antibiotics have gotten most of the attention in regards to antibiotic overuse, they are not the main culprits in antibiotic resistance. In fact, overuse of antibiotics might actually act as a good immune response for the prevention of bacterial infections!
This is because the innate response will clear out whatever bacteria are present, before the adaptive immune response can mount any kind of all-out attack.
Antibiotic Overuse and Resistance
So, why are we so concerned about antibiotic overuse? Because it’s leading to an increased risk of antibiotic resistance. The adaptive response is what makes us sick, and the innate response is what makes us better.
Unfortunately, when we overuse antibiotics, we skew our immune system to be more adaptive. We’re training our body to be a lot more likely to fight off bacterial infections with the adaptive immune response. This can lead to chronic inflammation and autoimmune disease; but it also leads to antibiotic resistance.
A real world example of how this plays out is the use of antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs). These are often bacterial infections, and they can be treated by taking a course of antibiotics. This will leave the bacterium without a competition, and it’s going to go on to increase in numbers. When it does, it starts producing a protein called A-protein (β-lactamase). This protein is responsible for breaking down many antibiotics, like penicillin and cephalosporin. This is huge, because the more of these are produced, the more resistant our infection becomes.
In addition to antibiotic resistance, the use of antibiotics can also contribute to a rapid bio-convergence – in just about every species on Earth.
This means that even if we stop using them tomorrow, bacteria will rapidly evolve right away to become resistant. For the moment, there is no treatment; we either have to let these infections run their course, or we have to hope for a cure.
But the biggest concern is that antibiotic resistance has the potential to become very dangerous. There’s been a recent outbreak of E coli in Germany, and this bacteria was resistant to antibiotics within just 6 weeks. This is frightening, because we cannot fight off this bacterial infection with antibiotics.
Rapid Bio-convergence Tests
Now, we’re not all doomed just yet. The good news is that researchers have developed a rapid bv test (RBCT).A rapid bv test works by simulating the immune response to viral infections, in order to identify any potential bacterial contaminations in the food supply. This uses a 10-minute PCR test to detect the A-protein mentioned above.
This means that we could use PCR to test for something that is never going to be a problem, which would be one of the main obstacles in the way of its adoption. There has already been a small scale study which showed its effectiveness.
