Study reveals short antibiotic courses fuel bacterial resistance

New Delhi, Apr 26 (IANS): Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a major health concern worldwide. Millions of people die every year because of this. A new research has shown that taking antibiotics for a short time can also create long-term resistance in our gut bacteria. Scientists from Stanford University in the US focused on an antibiotic called ciprofloxacin in this study. This medicine is used in treating bacterial infections of many parts of the body. The study found that ciprofloxacin can independently induce resistance in many different bacterial species, and the effects can last for more than ten weeks. The main cause of AMR is the overuse or misuse of antibiotics.

Previous studies were done in the lab or on animals, but in this new research, scientists studied 60 healthy humans at length and saw how bacteria changed after antibiotics. This research has been published in the journal 'Nature'.

Researchers asked 60 healthy adults to take 500 mg of ciprofloxacin twice a day for five days. They collected stool samples from participants and used a computer-based technique to analyse 5,665 bacterial genomes to find more than 2.3 million genetic mutations.

Of these, 513 bacterial groups were found to have mutations in a gene called GYRA, which is associated with the formation of resistance from an antibiotic group called fluoroquinolones. Fluoroquinolones are antibiotics that kill bacteria by inhibiting their DNA-making process.

Most mutations formed on their own in every person's body in different ways. About 10 percent of the bacteria, which could have died earlier with the drug, now have resistance. This resistance persisted even after ten weeks. The special thing is that the bacteria whose number was already high, they were more likely to form resistance.

"This study shows that even a short term use of ciprofloxacin can lead to the development of resistance in gut bacteria, and these changes may persist long after the medication has ended," the scientists said. "

The given research shows that bacteria in the human stomach keep changing themselves so that medicines do not affect them. Their genes and surroundings play a big role in this change.