Anti-microbial resistance and aging-A design for evolution.
Amrita NepaliaSheryl Erica FernandesHarpreet SinghShweta RanaDeepak Kumar SainiPublished in: WIREs mechanisms of disease (2023)
The emergence of resistance to anti-infective agents poses a significant threat to successfully treating infections caused by bacteria. Bacteria acquire random mutations due to exposure to environmental stresses, which may increase their fitness to other selection pressures. Interestingly, for bacteria, the frequency of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) seems to be increasing in tandem with the human lifespan. Based on evidence from previous literature, we speculate that increased levels of free radicals (Reactive Oxygen Species-ROS and Reactive Nitrosative Species-RNS), elevated inflammation, and the altered tissue microenvironment in aged individuals may drive pathogen mutagenesis. If these mutations result in the hyperactivation of efflux pumps or alteration in drug target binding sites, it could confer AMR, thus rendering antibiotic therapy ineffective while leading to the selection of novel drug-resistant variants. This article is categorized under: Immune System Diseases > Genetics/Genomics/Epigenetics Infectious Diseases > Environmental Factors Metabolic Diseases > Environmental Factors.
Keyphrases
- drug resistant
- reactive oxygen species
- infectious diseases
- multidrug resistant
- microbial community
- acinetobacter baumannii
- endothelial cells
- systematic review
- oxidative stress
- crispr cas
- physical activity
- gene expression
- single cell
- copy number
- emergency department
- dna methylation
- bone marrow
- candida albicans
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- risk assessment
- climate change
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- antimicrobial resistance
- cell therapy
- drug induced
- adverse drug
- human health
- genome wide