Re-Inventing Infectious Disease: Antibiotic Resistance and Drug Development at the Bayer Company 1945–80

Gradmann, Christoph

doi:10.1017/mdh.2016.2

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…Both Sir Alexander Fleming and Gerhard Domagk, who discovered penicillin and prontosil, respectively, warned of the danger of bacterial resistance developing following improper use of their antibiotics 20,21 . One of the first reports of antibiotic resistance was the finding that a cell-free extract from a coliform bacterium that was unaffected by penicillin was able to inactivate penicillin, which indicated enzymatic degradation of the drug 22 .…”

Section: The Golden Age Of Antibioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a period of time, novel or previously known mechanisms of resistance that arose in new pathogens were commonly dealt with by developing and releasing a new antibiotic. Indeed, resistant bacteria were even welcomed by Domagk as an opportunity to increase the antibiotic market share 20 . During this era, resistance genes and bacteria were largely identified one gene and one strain at a time using culture-based methods.…”

Section: The Golden Age Of Antibioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Next-generation approaches to understand and combat the antibiotic resistome

2017

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Antibiotic resistance is a natural feature of diverse microbial ecosystems. Although recent studies of the antibiotic resistome have highlighted barriers to the horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes between habitats, the rapid global spread of genes that confer resistance to carbapenem, colistin and quinolone antibiotics illustrates the dire clinical and societal consequences of such events. Over time, the study of antibiotic resistance has grown from focusing on single pathogenic organisms in axenic culture to studying antibiotic resistance in pathogenic, commensal and environmental bacteria at the level of microbial communities. As the study of antibiotic resistance advances, it is important to incorporate this comprehensive approach to better inform global antibiotic resistance surveillance and antibiotic development. It is increasingly becoming apparent that although not all resistance genes are likely to geographically and phylogenetically disseminate, the threat presented by those that are is serious and warrants an interdisciplinary research focus. In this Review, we highlight seminal work in the resistome field, discuss recent advances in the studies of resistomes, and propose a resistome paradigm that can pave the way for the improved proactive identification and mitigation of emerging antibiotic resistance threats.

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Section: The Golden Age Of Antibioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Golden Age Of Antibioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Next-generation approaches to understand and combat the antibiotic resistome

2017

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“…Antibiotics, ‘the magic bullets’, have proved to be one of the most revolutionary discoveries of the twentieth century ( 1 , 2 ). However, their overuse and misuse in various cases, including viral and fungal infections, and patient failure to follow the prescribed course have led to a rise in antibiotic-resistant strains, the ‘post antibiotic era’ ( 3 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Phage therapy againstEnterococcus faecalisin dental root canals

Khalifa

Shlezinger

Beyth

et al. 2016

Journal of Oral Microbiology

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Antibiotic resistance is an ever-growing problem faced by all major sectors of health care, including dentistry. Recurrent infections related to multidrug-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in hospitals are untreatable and question the effectiveness of notable drugs. Two major reasons for these recurrent infections are acquired antibiotic resistance genes and biofilm formation. None of the traditionally known effective techniques have been able to efficiently resolve these issues. Hence, development of a highly effective antibacterial practice has become inevitable. One example of a hard-to-eradicate pathogen in dentistry is Enterococcus faecalis, which is one of the most common threats observed in recurrent root canal treatment failures, of which the most problematic to treat are its biofilm-forming VRE strains. An effective response against such infections could be the use of bacteriophages (phages). Phage therapy was found to be highly effective against biofilm and multidrug-resistant bacteria and has other advantages like ease of isolation and possibilities for genetic manipulations. The potential of phage therapy in dentistry, in particular against E. faecalis biofilms in root canals, is almost unexplored. Here we review the efforts to develop phage therapy against biofilms. We also focus on the phages isolated against E. faecalis and discuss the possibility of using phages against E. faecalis biofilm in root canals.

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“…Antibiotics, for example, had initially been hailed as tools to vanquish infection. However, as drug-resistant bacteria appeared, these and other drugs came to be seen as double-edged swords (Gradmann 2016). Childhood diseases and other infectious killers thought to be 'on the way out', such as tuberculosis and malaria, re-emerged (Farmer 1999, Garrett 19942000).…”

Section: Global Disease Landscapes and The Making Of Plastic As Ambasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hospitals as factories of medical garbage

Hodges

2017

Anthropology & Medicine

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Over the course of the twentieth century, as hospitals cleaned up, they came to produce more and more rubbish. Beginning in the 1970s and gaining pace in the 1980s and 1990s, single-use plastic items (syringes, blood bags, tubing) saturated everyday medical practice across the globe. This essay brings the question of plastic to bear upon the longer history of twentieth century sanitary science. The widespread adoption of single-use disposable medical plastics consolidated a century's worth of changes in medical hygiene. As strange as it may seem today, the initial uptake of medical plastics was not driven primarily by concerns about hygiene. Plastic began as a mid-century technology of convenience and durability. It was not until the end of the twentieth century that it morphed into a powerful symbol and instrument of medical hygiene. Today, both patients and practitioners have embraced plastic as an indispensable technology of clean medicine. The procession of single-use medical plastics through everyday medicine now comprises a constant, if disposable, infrastructure of medical hygiene. This new processional infrastructure of disposable hygiene has produced another, albeit unintended, consequence. This new regime has exponentially increased hospitals' material outputs. In so doing, plastic has refigured the ecologies of everyday medicine. Plastic hygiene has rendered hospitals factories of medical garbage.

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Re-Inventing Infectious Disease: Antibiotic Resistance and Drug Development at the Bayer Company 1945–80

Cited by 33 publications

References 27 publications

Next-generation approaches to understand and combat the antibiotic resistome

Next-generation approaches to understand and combat the antibiotic resistome

Phage therapy againstEnterococcus faecalisin dental root canals

Hospitals as factories of medical garbage

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