Interference plasmids and their use in combating bacterial resistance

Abstract

Fighting against pathogenic bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics has become critical for health care worldwide. More than half a million people die every year from infections caused by drug resistant bacteria. Since bacteria acquire resistance to antibiotics very quickly and the development of new antibiotics is a lengthy process, the search for new approaches to stop the spread of bacterial resistance is extremely important. The spread of antibiotic resistance is accomplished mainly by horizontal gene transfer. Scientists are concentrating their efforts on studying the mechanism of this process in order to find a way to stop or reverse it. In this paper, the author gives a brief review of the recent studies on horizontal gene transfer, particularly on incompatibility-based plasmid curing systems. The author examines new possibilities to use the mechanism of horizontal gene transfer for the developing of novel approaches to fight pathogenic bacteria.