TeachableMedicalNews article 10092020

Teachable moment in classrooms:

  1. chemical basis of life chapter – proteins are made of amino acids linked by peptide bonds
  2. cellular basis of life chapter – protein synthesis on ribosome
  3. respiratory system chapter – alveoli location and function
  4. immune system chapter – events during inflammation
  5. microbiology – bacterial resistance against antibiotics

The news item:  Recently the news of a novel antibiotic was reported:

FDA approves new antibiotic for bacterial pneumonia

A new antibiotic has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It’s called Xenleta and the FDA says it’s another treatment option to fight a common type of pneumonia.

The article states that the new antibiotic, Xenleta, is a pleuromutilin, and it fights community acquired bacterial pneumonia.

So, Why Do I Care??

Pneumonia is the reason for 1 million hospitalizations and 50,000 deaths each year in the US. Most pneumonia cases are caused by bacterial infections. Because this disease can get worse quickly, efficient treatment must include the killing of the bacteria that cause the disease. Any new antibiotic that can treat people whose pneumonia resists the regular antibiotics likely to save thousands of lives each year.

Plain English, Please!!!

First, let’s talk about what bacterial pneumonia is. When the deepest portion of our respiratory system, the alveoli (air sacks), are attacked by bacteria, the result is local inflammation called pneumonia. Blood vessels dilate around the infected area, and white blood cells move out of the blood vessels to ingest the bacteria. Fluid also moves out of blood vessels, and collects in the alveoli. This fluid in the alveoli makes breathing difficult, and causes death if the patient is not treated and put on a ventilator.

Second, let’s talk about how Xenleta fights bacteria.  Xenleta stops the manufacturing of proteins in bacteria. Imagine the ribosome, the protein manufacturing organelle, as car factory. The car parts, the amino acids, are coming into the factory, and then welded to each other into a protein, the car.  Xenleta acts by stopping the protein assembly process, stopping the movement of the welding robots that join car parts. Without protein synthesis the bacterium dies.

Third, let’s talk about resistance to antibiotics. The DNA in bacteria changes (mutates) with every cell division. Some of those changes may allow the bacteria to degrade the antibiotic itself, expel the antibiotic, or change the structure of the ribosome, so the antibiotic now can no longer enter and block the protein factory. Such a resistance to antibiotics can spread among bacteria, because small circles of DNA, called plasmids, from the resistant bacterium may be passed on to a non-resistant recipient bacterium; the recipient bacterium learns how to resist antibiotics using the information in the plasmid.

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