{"id":5722,"date":"2013-04-02T13:25:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T13:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/?p=5722"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:27:03","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:27:03","slug":"new-ways-to-fight-bacteria-a-biology-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/new-ways-to-fight-bacteria-a-biology-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ways to Fight Bacteria: A Biology Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview of Bacteria<\/strong>
\nBacteria are microorganisms that are among the earliest forms of life on Earth.\u00a0 They are found in all different environments, from very cold to very hot.\u00a0 Some forms of bacteria have even been found in rocks deep within the Earth’s crust, feeding on rocks.\u00a0 Most species are benign, but a number cause disease when they invade cells and multiply.<\/p>\n

How Do Bacteria Develop Antibiotic Resistance?<\/strong>
\nAlthough most bacteria have only one chromosome, they have many genes that carry information that guide \u00a0growth, metabolism, and reproduction.\u00a0 They reproduce through a simple process of fission, so that all bacteria are normally identical to each other. However, when bacteria are exposed to an antibiotic, not all of them die.\u00a0 The surviving bacteria pass on the genetic change, either through mutation or direct genetic transfer.\u00a0 Bacteria reproduce quickly, so as more of them survive in each generation and pass on their “survival genes”, more generations become resistant to older forms of antibiotics.<\/p>\n

Block Proteins to Stop Bacteria<\/strong>
\nBiochemists are in a never-ending race to find new ways to stop bacteria from multiplying and spreading infection.\u00a0 For example, some deadly bacteria produce chemicals that allow them to fool cell proteins into allowing them in to multiply and kill their host.\u00a0 Scientists are developing ways to block those chemicals, so that the bacteria cannot move within the cell.\u00a0 It is another way to keep bacteria from growing and multiplying in healthy cells.\u00a0 If they cannot grow and multiply, the disease can be stopped, without using antibiotics.<\/p>\n

Block Communication to Stop Bacteria<\/strong>
\nBiologists have also recently discovered details about how bacteria use enzymes to communicate with their host cells and with one another.\u00a0 For example, the bacteria that cause \u00a0forms of pneumonia like Legionnaire’s disease alter the way that lung cells normally function.\u00a0 The enzymes trick healthy cells and disrupt the immune system.\u00a0 If they can be blocked, then the immune system can defend itself.<\/p>\n

Fight Bacteria with their own Poison<\/strong>
\nBacteria produce poisons, different forms of toxins, to take over or kill the cells they invade.\u00a0 Some bacteria protect themselves from toxins by developing their own immunity to the poison.\u00a0 They inactivate the toxin until it can be released into the host cell.\u00a0 However, if the toxin is activated while it is within the bacterium,\u00a0 the toxin will kill it from within.\u00a0 Therefore, new forms of antibiotics would fight bacteria by causing them to destroy themselves.<\/p>\n

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Overview of Bacteria Bacteria are microorganisms that are among the earliest forms of life on Earth.\u00a0 They are found in all different environments, from very cold to very hot.\u00a0 Some forms of bacteria have even been found in rocks deep within the Earth’s crust, feeding on rocks.\u00a0 Most species are benign, but a number cause […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[110,170,1437,1839],"class_list":["post-5722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-antibiotic-resistance","tag-bacteria","tag-proteins","tag-toxins"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}