[hardcandy]

Just saw this article today:

Malaria drug may be fueling antibiotic resistance

"The surprising findings suggest that treating malaria with the cheap, widely used drug chloroquine -- a close cousin of fluoroquinolones -- may boost the risk of resistance to [fluoroquinolone] antibiotics, they said."​

Cipro is among the fluoroquinolone antibiotics. The article says,

"Fluoroquinolones or quinolones are among the most commonly used antibiotics in North America and Europe..."​

The findings are specific to chloroquine, not hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil):

"He said the findings could have implications for a new generation of malaria therapies known as artemisinin-based combination therapies, or ACT drugs, which are recommended by the World Health Organization because of growing resistance to older treatments such as chloroquine.

ACT therapies usually include quinoline drugs similar to chloroquine, Silverman said. "The question is, 'Is this true of all quinolines or just chloroquine?' "​

Guess we'll have to wait and see. But, it's something to consider if Cipro or related antibiotics just aren't working for you. Still, I'm not sure whether this would apply to the doses of antimalarials we take as opposed to those used to treat malaria.

 

[cath]

Hi Hardcandy,

Just a note about how drug resistance in bacteria works:

When people (and animals and plants) are infected with a bacteria and this infection is treated with antibiotics, normally the drug and the person's immune system completely kills all the bacteria.
If the antibiotic course is cut short, or poorly absorbed or the person's immune system is weak then sometimes some of the bacteria survive. These bacteria are then stronger for the experience - they got given the antibiotic and lived to tell the tale. If they then reproduce their ofspring may also be resistent. Over generations these bacteria can get more and more resistant to a certain antibiotic, until it is no longer effective to kill that strain.

So, a person doesn't get resistant to an antibiotic, bacteria do.
Resistance to antibiotics is specific to the particular strain of bacteria and the specific drug, so if one strain of staf aureas is resistent to methycylin (this is what MRSA is), another strain of staf is still completely wiped out by it, and there is no relationship whatsoever on what other bacteria are susceptible to.

Also drug resistance is something that happens when large groups of people or animals are needlesly treated with antibiotics, or incompletely treated, and builds up over time. It is possible to catch a drug resisten bacteria, but much less likely that you will have a chronic infection with a bacteria that over time develops drug resistance. In otherwords it is very very unlikely that taking antimalarials could mean that you could get sick with a drug resistant bacteria, and completely impossible by definition that you yourself are resistant to the antibiotic.

Still, your post does raise an important point. Any infection that you have where you are being treated with an antibiotic but are not getting better should be investigated to make sure that the correct bacteria has been identified and that it is indeed sensitive to the antibiotic that was prescribed.

Cheers,

X C X

 

[hardcandy]

Sorry for being unclear - I know that a person isn't the one who technically becomes resistant, although we can retain plasmids 'n stuff in our bodies (or in the bacteria in our bodies) that carry genetic material from the resistant strains. Bacteria have sex or pick up these plasmids and can, in so doing, spread their resistant ways. It can go cross-strain, like from one kind of e-coli to another (plasmid transfer), because that's one way that multi-resistant strains develop, if I've understood it correctly - some have several plasmids where each plasmid contains genetic info about a specific drug. Plasmids can even be spread to different types of bacteria, different species, even, right?

Yeah - I was thinking of a more chronic bacterial infection that isn't going away and that had already become used to 'quines before starting quine-type antibiotic therapy. I was thinking of that being how this could be an issue for someone with lupus.

You're right that one is more likely to contract an already resistant strain of something, especially with so many going around these days. Sorry if I seemed to mix that up - that's the main concern of the article - having such resistance develop within the community.

Just like you described, the article talks about how low doses of antimalarials used to treat malaria are effective as an antibiotic on their own, but not effective to kill all of the bacteria, and in this way, 'quine resistant strains of bacteria multiply and wind up being resistant to the related family of antibiotics. To be more clear, it's the bacteria within the community being treated for malaria that is developing resistance. Since most of us don't live there, it's not really an issue, not yet, at least.

I was just trying to imagine what sort of implications the findings might have for people like us, who are on antimalarials and who are also prone to infection and/or often on immunosuppressants. I guess my mind got stuck on bacterial sex and plasmids. O my!

We're pretty safe, then? That is good to know!

 

[Clare.T]

Well, it is rather late in the night for me and I am dead tired and showing signs of peri dementia but I will worry about this when I read or discover that I truly have something to worry about, considering that I take about 6- 7 times the dose of chloroquine used for anti malarial prophylaxis !

On the other hand, "chloroquine protects the cells from damage from viral infections. Its discontinuation has been associated with flares of viral infections. Chloroquine and HCQ inhibit replication of HIV in T -cells and monocytes which may account for the negative association of AIDS and SLE "

We should really all be taking Quinacrine (UK Mepacrine) :hehe:

"Quinacrine has antiparasitic,antiprotozoan, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal actions. It can prevent resistance to various antibiotics and increase interferon production and perhaps prevent pneumocystis infection."
(Dr Wallace, Dubois p1156)

We could even use it as a contraceptive (not taken orally I hasten to add)
It mightn't stop us getting malaria though, depending which part of the world we're talking about and if the malaria strains there had become resistant to it.
:lol:

Cheers
Clare

 

[confused1]

Ok, I'm trying to figure out how I might take my plaquenil other than "orally", and I think I understand the contraceptive factor: If I had to deal with a pill every day in an alternate method of ..... um, ingress..... I'd be in such a foul mood that there'd be no sex, plasmid or otherwise :lol::rotfl:.

Thanks, Clare, for planting that "not orally" picture squarely in my brain where I can't shake it loose. Just what I needed.

Sunny

 

[cath]

:rotfl::rotfl::spin::rotfl::rotfl:

Thanks for that good laugh:wink2:

X C X

 

[Clare.T]

For the sake of strict accuracy it isn't contraception as such but a highly controversial method of non surgical sterilization, not used in 'developed' countries. If you google 'quinacrine' the first entry is still a Wikipedia article focusing on this use of it.
It's also being studied for use in prion diseases like BSE, 'mad cow' disease.

Heh!:hehe:
Clare