Wanna see my cute little Biology extra-credit assignment? Dial-up warning.

[Lyric]

We had to make a simple 8.5 x 11 inch mini-poster about MRSA that explains (in a simple way) what it is, how it can affect college students, and provides some tips to avoid it.

Here's mine--I just finished it. I used Photoshop 7.2, for those who are interested.

[struggle4progress]

1. In the pre-antibiotic era, draining boils sometimes led to fatal systematic staph infections

People may have gotten more relaxed after antibiotics became widely available, but life may more and more resemble the pre-antibiotic era if resistent strains become common

[Lyric]

2. We're going to need new "antibiotics."

I am extremely interested in the research being done with genetically-modified bacteriophages as antibiotics.

Bacteriophages (often known simply as "phages") are viruses that grow within bacteria. The name translates as "eaters of bacteria" and reflects the fact that as they grow, the majority of bacteriophages kill the bacterial host in order to release the next generation of bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are incapable of infecting anything other than specific strains of the target bacteria, underlying their potential for use as control agents.

(snip)

With the far greater understanding of bacteriophages and their function that is now available, it is possible to identify the bacteria which are causing disease and then target them with bacteriophages that will kill those bacteria, and only those bacteria. This specificity has other benefits. Whereas antibiotics can kill a wide range of bacteria, leading to recolonisation of the body by inappropriate and often harmful bacteria, bacteriophages selectively eliminate only the target.

http://www.biocontrol-ltd.com/AsAntibiotics/tabid/56/Default.aspx

I firmly believe that this is the next generation of antibiotic. In a hundred years, people will be treated routinely with phage therapy for bacterial infections, and conventional antibiotics will be mostly memory. Imagine--an effective antibiotic that nobody is allergic to, that doesn't kill beneficial gut bacteria, and that isn't toxic to your liver, kidneys, etc.

:hi:

[struggle4progress]

3. My first reaction is that it sounds like a great idea. My second reaction is to wonder

what could go wrong

If one uses the host bacterium to produce batches of phage to separate by (say) filtration, one has the problem that this potentially requires industrial-scale handling of virulent cultures, though I suppose one might hope to use bacteria with a critical knock-out; or perhaps one could hope to batch synthesize viral components individually and then assemble them. Long term, one still probably can't get from evolutionary resistance, such as receptor changes in the pathogen cell-wall

[TZ]

6. Its probably not as dangerous as you think...

DNA vaccines and gene therapy are kind of a mirror technology to this..using bacteria to carry viral or other type of genes into the cell.....And this technology is becoming better and better and more effective everyday. I think oktoberrain is right on where anti-biotic and other technology is going with this...(cancer research as well)

[Lyric]

7. *nods* Yep.

I was reading recently about researchers looking into using modified viruses to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells, so they don't harm surrounding tissues. I think that's a fascinating idea. And it might be food for HIV research, too--perhaps using viruses to interfere with the HIV virus.

Lots of amazing things going on in the world of genetic engineering.

:hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

4. MRSA isn't as dangerous as it was thought to be about 1-2 years ago.

The antibiotic cocktails they use actually work. It just takes a while because they have to grow out the culture.

Good job!

[NV Whino]

5. Nice job

You put in a lot of information and organized it in a readable and understandable way.