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Brian's avatar

It would be interesting to know if the most dangerous AB resistant bacteria could be treated with viral bacteriophages.

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AG's avatar

Does this imply that completely artificially derived antibiotics should be robust against antibiotic resistance?

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Kevin Blake, PhD's avatar

Artificial antibiotics could be more robust than natural ones, as they wouldn't have any pre-existing resistance mechanism. However, I think it's virtually impossible for any drug to be "resistance proof" as a) resistance against an unrelated drug might work on this new one (called "cross-resistance"), and/or b) de novo resistance could still evolve the slow way, via mutation and selection.

So, resistance against artificial antibiotics might emerge more slowly. But, when it comes to completely overcoming resistance, to quote Jurassic Park: "Life, uh, finds a way"

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