More research funding needed in infection fight

WE ARE approaching antibiotic resistance with a “20th-century mentality”, and more research funding is urgently needed to discover new ways of fighting dangerous infections such as MRSA, a US expert has said.

“We don’t understand resistance well,” said Dr Steve Projan from Wyeth Research, who yesterday addressed a conference at Trinity College Dublin.

The meeting is part of a four-day celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the genetics department at the college.

Dr Projan argued that “funding works, it’s not just throwing money at the problem” when it came to antibiotic resistance. He described how granting money for basic research generated several drugs against HIV in the 1980s.

Figures from the US showed that in 2002 deaths related to antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus more than doubled the number of HIV-related deaths, but the funding ratio is 70 to one in favour of HIV, he told The Irish Times.

“We are fighting this with a 20th century mentality and need a new mindset to get back to looking at bacteria.”

Recent work had shown that the amount of DNA in a bacterium could influence its ability to become resistant to antibiotics. Genetic research was opening new channels for attacking bacteria, including stopping them from recycling molecules so they “choke in their own waste,” said Dr Projan.

“It begs for a more profound understanding,” he added. “And pharmaceutical companies can’t do it all, it just doesn’t work.”

Delegates, many of whom were Trinity graduates returning from positions abroad, also heard about how bacterial genes are switched on and regulated, and how studying microbial genetics has helped to develop new antibiotics.

“Antibiotics are in diminishing supply and with the emergence of resistance, words like MRSA and C difficile are now part of the general vocabulary,” said Prof Kevin Devine from Trinity, who chaired yesterday’s session.

“There’s a serious problem in developing solutions to meet these challenges.”

Prof Sir David Hopwood from Norwich described how antibiotic discovery had tailed off dramatically since the 1960s, and how understanding and using the genetics of micro-organisms could yield new chemicals.

“The more we understand the biology of these agents, the more we can find out how to discover new ones,” he said.

The aim of the conference was to increase general understanding, said Prof David McConnell, professor of genetics at Trinity. “We want to show off the frontiers of genetics, both to the geneticists who will sit in on lectures outside their field, and to the general public, anyone who has an interest in science. Everybody is welcome,” he said.

“When I was an undergraduate, nobody had heard about genes or genetics, but now barely a day goes by when you don’t read about it in the paper. There has been a lot of misrepresentation about genetics – some of it genuine, some of it contrived. People should be able to get a better idea from coming along to this.”

The conference continues until Saturday. See www.genetics 50.org

TCD genetics at 50: special eight-page report.

Editorial comment: page 17