Researchers develop a theoretical model to reduce antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern. The Centers for Diseases Control perceive improved use of antibiotics through identifying the best combination of drugs as one of the ways of controlling the problem. However, since the number of antibiotics is extremely large, the application of this method is difficult. To resolve this problem, the researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have developed a mathematical approach inspired by Darwinian evolution to analyze antibiotic resistance. They discovered that the ability of the bacterium E. coli to survive in antibiotics could be either encouraged or stalled depending on the sequence of antibiotics given. According to the researchers, approximately 70% of different sequences of 2 to 4 antibiotics lead to resistance to the final drug. This suggests that the resistance of a particular strain of bacteria to an antibiotic can be avoided through careful sequencing of antibiotics. The researchers now plan to validate these results as well as apply these findings to other therapies.

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