Could Antimicrobial Resistance Prove to Be Both a Threat and an Opportunity for us?

Authors: Avramov T

DOI: 10.23880/ooaj-16000309

Volume 10, Issue 2

Abstract

Introduction: Diversification of viral and bacterial strains, climate and environmental changes, population mobility, uneven population density, different sanitary conditions and medical care, changes in animal habitats, and increasing antibiotic resistance contribute to increased pressure on the host-pathogen-environment system. Materials: Resistance exists in nature even to drugs that have not yet been developed. Will using the effects of probiotic strains, which simultaneously serve as 'deliverers' of proteinaceous antibiotic-like substances, allow us to remodel the interactions between the components of the holobiont?” Results: Probiotic strains can be used to restore the composition of the microbiota, bacteriocin-induced inhibition of other organisms, limit the spread of non-communicable diseases (eczema, allergy, or asthma), suppress their manifestations, in strategies for cancer protection and prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases. Conclusion: The use of probiotic strains increases competition for adhesion and nutrients with those with pathogenic potential. In sufficient quantities, they create a maximally hostile environment for colonization of pathogens and limit invasion, overgrowth of the latter, and even a return to the orbit of commensals. Unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics, which do not distinguish between commensals and pathogens and can reduce the microbiota up to 30%, probiotic strains inhibit or inactivate other organisms without adversely affecting the beneficial flora. To achieve our goals, probiotics must stop being food supplements and meet the safety and efficacy characteristics set in their preparation.

Keywords: Metabiota; Holobiont; Microbiota; Probiotics; Prebiotics; Prevention; Interactions

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