05 January 2012 | General, BMBS, CMST
Debating bacterial adaptation to selection following antibiotic treatment
COST Actions in the field of Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences collaborate to investigate bacterial adaptation and resistance.
The continuous and rapid emergence of resistant pathogens of human and animal importance is a worrying health problem worldwide, recognised as a public health challenge by governments as well as international institutions such as the European Union, United States Government, European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and the World Health Organization (wHO).
This problem is exacerbated by the rapid dissemination of multidrug resistant isolates of various bacterial species involved in both human and animal diseases through i.e. international travel and global trade in food and other commodities.
A recent report issued by the Transatlantic Taskforce on Antimicrobial Resistance Recommendations for future collaboration between the U.S. and EU argues that “the societal and financial costs of treating antimicrobial-resistant infections place a significant human and economic burden on society, as individuals infected with drug-resistant organisms are more likely to remain in the hospital for a longer period of time and to have a poor prognosis”.
COST Action BM0701 on ‘Antibiotic Transport and Efflux: New Strategies to combat bacterial resistance (ATENS)’ and COST Action BM1003 on ‘Microbial cell surface determinants of virulence as targets for new therapeutics in Cystic Fibrosis’ have teamed up to focus their research efforts on the emerging threat of antimicrobial resistance and bacterial respiratory diseases.
At a recent meeting held in Brussels, scientists and researchers discussed the role of bacterial adaptation to selection following antibiotic treatment, with a particular focus on the life-threatening respiratory disease cystic fibrosis. Participation of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers (SANCO) ensured that discussions included the current policy position being developed to combat antimicrobial resistance at EU level.
This initiative also involves COST Action CM0804 on ‘Chemical Biology with Natural Products’, from the COST Domain for Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST), testifying the interdisciplinary nature of COST Actions and the benefits of networking in the field of science and technology at pan-European level.
