A 3D rendering of E. coli bacteria. The MCR-1 gene grants bacteria
like E. coli resistance to the antibiotic colistin, one of the most
powerful drugs of last resort for bacterial infections.
By:
Jennifer Yang Global health reporter:
An
alarming new superbug gene that makes bacteria resistant to a
last-resort antibiotic has been detected in Canada, the Star has
learned.
The gene, called MCR-1, produces an enzyme
that makes bacteria invincible to colistin, a highly toxic antibiotic
used only when all other drugs have failed.
MCR-1 was first reported in November by scientists in China, who published a paper in The Lancet
that set off alarm bells across the globe. Analyzing bacterial samples
in southeastern China, researchers found 260 samples of E. coli with the
MCR-1 gene on meat, hospital patients and farm animals — the likely
source of this new superbug, the paper suggests.
But the news that really sent a shudder
through the scientific community was that MCR-1 is located on a plasmid,
a free-floating snippet of DNA that bacteria can easily share, thus
spreading the resistance to other organisms.
“It’s clearly the biggest story to come out
(in 2015),” said Lance Price, a professor of environmental health at
George Washington University who studies antibiotic resistance. “There
have been horrible things all year but this is the most disturbing.”...Read more>>http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/05/disturbing-drug-resistant-superbug-gene-has-been-detected-in-canada.html
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