Immune Bacteria...
Recently, The PBS program, Frontline, aired a program, "Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria" which you can see at http://video.pbs.org/video/2365104403 in which it exposed how certain bacteria have developed immunity to antibiotics, and worse. The immunity gene seems to be promiscuous, namely that it can jump from one bacteria genus to another - so tuberculosis, pneumonia, staphylococcus, and clamydia are all fair game.
The issue of antibiotic immunity was addressed by Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered pennicillin in 1928. He said that antibiotics should be used sparingly because bacteria "learn" immunity. So, in our wisdom, we grow cattle and chicken in industrial pens in so much filth that they need constant antibiotics to survive until they are killed when we eat them, antibiotics included -- see entry "Privatization and the Public Purse".
People are dying from bacterial infections because some bacteria have acquired that immunity and the vector is your local hospital. For some there is no treatment. A scuffed knee could end in death. The wolf is at the door.
Virus Manufacture...
If bacteria are out of control, we are becoming God with regard to viruses. In the November issue of Foreign Affairs, the article "The Promise and Perils of the Synbio Revolution" expounds our successes in that area.
One can call it 4D printing or synthetic biology.
3D printing consists of building up an object by multiple passes of a print head, building the object layer by layer. Hearing aids are created that way and the potential is to individualize manufacturing.
4D printing is much the same, but uses a nucleotide base and a previously mapped gene to create genomes, viruses, and bacteria. The first living polio virus was created in this mannner in 2002, self-replicating bacteria were created in May 2010, the H5N1 flu virus was synthesized in Holland in 2011, and to bring the security aspect into sharp focus -- vials containing synthetic H5N1 went missing from Egyptian labs when the anti-Mubarrak revolution happened.
Crossroads...
We have reached the stage where to create viruses is becoming as easy as painting with numbers and, at the same time, where bacteria are becoming immune to antibiotics. It is no exaggeration to say we are in big, big trouble.
Stop press...June 20th, 2014
An update from Nature grants relief from the super-bacteria crisis...
"Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is essential for most Gram-negative bacteria and has crucial roles in protection of the bacteria from harsh environments and toxic compounds, including antibiotics. Seven LPS transport proteins (that is, LptA–LptG) form a trans-envelope protein complex responsible for the transport of LPS from the inner membrane to the outer membrane, the mechanism for which is poorly understood. Here we report the first crystal structure of the unique integral membrane LPS translocon LptD–LptE complex. LptD forms a novel 26-stranded β-barrel, which is to our knowledge the largest β-barrel reported so far. LptE adopts a roll-like structure located inside the barrel of LptD to form an unprecedented two-protein ‘barrel and plug’ architecture. The structure, molecular dynamics simulations and functional assays suggest that the hydrophilic O-antigen and the core oligosaccharide of the LPS may pass through the barrel and the lipid A of the LPS may be inserted into the outer leaflet of the outer membrane through a lateral opening between strands β1 and β26 of LptD. These findings not only help us to understand important aspects of bacterial outer membrane biogenesis, but also have significant potential for the development of novel drugs against multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria."
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