Scientists have diagnosed the way Bacteria changes to become Drug or Antibiotic Resistant. Studying samples from elderly patients with recurring urinary tract infections, the Newcastle University team used state-of-the-art techniques to identify that bacteria can lose their cell wall—the common target of many groups of antibiotics. The research by the Errington lab which turns on its head current thinking about the bacteria's ability to survive without a cell wall, known as "L-form switching", is published today in Nature Communications.
The World Health Organisation has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. Lead author, Dr. said: "What we have seen is that in the presence of antibiotics, the bacteria are able to change from a highly regular walled form to a completely random, cell wall-deficient L-form…
