The discovery of antibiotics was a pivotal point in the advancement of civilization. They allowed people to live longer and spurred the start of many medical discoveries. Antibiotics were seen as miracle drugs, and so they were used often. No one was thinking there could be any down side to these amazing drugs that were saving lives. The last 20 years people have started to notice that some antibiotics have stopped working on certain bacterial infections, and we now know that the drugs that saved us are causing these issues. There has been an exponential rise in the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the last two decades. The bacteria are adapting to be able to survive the antibiotics.  The overuse and misuse of antibiotics is causing negative genetic variation in bacteria, and should be replaced with bacteriophage therapy. 

The first-time antibiotics were seen as the saving grace that they are seen as today was after Fleming found a way to make penicillin on September 3, 1928. After its discovery penicillin was used for almost all bacterial infections at the time, and even some non-bacterial. In order for antibiotics to kill a bacteria the antibiotic must find a way to disrupt one of the bacteria’s vital processes. One type of antibiotic is “Beta-lactam this antibiotics kill bacteria that are surrounded by a cell wall. Without support from a cell wall, pressure inside the cell becomes too much and the membrane bursts. Examples of beta-lactams include penicillin and cephalosporin” (What is an antibiotic). The second kind of antibiotic are called Macrolides, these kill bacteria by affecting their ribosomes processes. Ribosomes are the part of the cell that create the proteins that cells need.   Since the cell can’t create any proteins the bacteria can’t survive. A common antibiotic that does this is called Erythromycin. The antibiotics might attach to the outside of the cell membrane of the bacteria and block the receptors on it.  The last group of antibiotics are called quinolones. These antibiotics target the bacteria’s DNA. The antibiotic will go into the cell and cut the DNA. When the DNA is cut, it can no longer be replicated and the cell will not be able to survive without it. After one hundred years of being exposed to these antibiotics the bacteria have started to change to become immune to them. (What is an antibiotic) 

(Griffiths)(Griffiths)The bacteria are able to change due to a process they undergo called conjugation. Bacterial conjugation can be defined as, “the transfer of genetic material between two bacterial cell via direct cell-to-cell contact” (DNA/Conjugation). Conjugation is when genetic material is transferred from one bacteria to another through what’s known as a pilus. A bacteria that contains the gene for resistance can extend its pili and give another bacteria the gene to be resistant to the antibiotic. It is also thought that the donor cell can also receive some of the recipient cell’s genetic information. Not all cells are able to do conjugation though, in order to be able to do conjugation the cell must have the F+ plasmid, a plasmid is how the DNA is arranged in bacteria. The cell that receives the genetic information has the F- plasmid. Conjugation is such an effective way to become resistant because the cell can retrieve the resistance gene even after the cell has died. One experiment that proved this was when Frederick Griffith injected a rat with one bacteria that would give the rat pneumonia, but was already dead so it couldn’t. Then he gave the rat a bacteria that was alive but wouldn’t kill it but the rat still died. This showed that the alive bacteria were able to get genetic information from the dead cell and use it to infect the rat. (Griffiths) Conjugation is considered the sex of bacteria even though there is no exchanging of gametes (Sex cells). The thing that can make conjugation such a dangerous thing in bacteria is that it can happen within different species of bacteria, unlike most other organisms that can only exchange genetic material with the same species. 



There are multiple ways that bacteria are known to become resistant, like, mutation transformation and vertical gene transfer, but “the current higher-levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are attributed to the overuse and abuse of antibiotics “(General background). Conjugation like this can also happen with antibiotic resistance. When an antibiotic is introduced inside a host’s body it goes to work killing any of the bacteria that it can find. If there was a bacteria that was immune to the antibiotic it would be able to live. With conjugation, the bacteria that were left alive are able to give their resistance gene to any other bacteria that are introduced to the host’s body. (General Background) 


The use of antibiotics has become more and more prominent in the last decade. People are using antibiotics for ailments that do not require nor benefit from antibiotics. The CDC list some of the diseases that shouldn’t be treated with antibiotics, “Viral infections should not be treated with antibiotics. Common infections caused by viruses include: Colds Flu, Most sore throats, most coughs and bronchitis (“chest colds”) Many sinus infections Many ear infections” (Antibiotic resistance). This list is some of the things that people try to treat with antibiotics even though bacteria have nothing to do with why they are sick.  People use antibiotics to try to suppress their symptoms, or thinking that they will help their infection go away faster. Taking antibiotics in any of these situations will not help your infection go away or suppress symptoms, the only thing it will do is further the resistance to antibiotics of bacteria. 

Over time if a strain of bacteria builds up resistance to multiple antibiotics it can become dangerous. A bacteria that is immune to all of the available antibiotics can become a serious problem if it is a virulent (can infect people) strain. There are already a good number of bacteria that are immune to all of the antibiotics that are available to the public. The real problem of antibiotic resistance starts to occur when bacteria are resistant to the stronger antibiotics that are only available in hospitals. These antibiotics are considered to be last resorts and doctors try not to use these unless they have to. This problem is already occurring in the U.S today, one example is, “In September 2016, a female in her 70s died from an infection caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), bacteria that was resistant to all available antibiotics” (Lee). A bacteria like this, one resistant to all antibiotics, can become a grave threat to not only the initial person infected but for everyone. A bacteria that is able to survive all antibiotics available would be able to spread to other people easily. As things like this become more prevalent doctors and researchers are looking for new ways to treat bacterial infections. 

The leading way to treat bacterial infections other than antibiotics is Bacteriophage therapy. The center for phage therapy describes phage therapy as, “Bacteriophages or "phage" are viruses that invade bacterial cells and, in the case of lytic phages, disrupt bacterial metabolism and cause the bacterium to lyse” (Phage therapy).  The lytic cycle of phages is how the virus kills the bacteria. In the lytic cycle the virus starts by attaching to the bacteria. The virus uses its tail fibers to connect to the bacteria’s cell wall. The virus will then inject its DNA or RNA into the bacteria. Once in the cell the genetic material will then be integrated into the host cell’s DNA where it will stay until it is activated. Once it is activated the virus’s DNA or RNA will then be used to make new viruses. The cell will then fill with new viruses until the cell explodes releasing the new viruses into the host’s body. This will allow the host to have even more of the bacteria killing viruses to be made and kill more bacteria. (Lytic Cycle) The bacteriophage will complete this cycle on the bacteria that it is designed to kill. 

Phage therapy was discovered around the same time that antibiotics were but was dismissed after antibiotics seemed to work so well. Phage therapy has recently been discovered to have many benefits over the use of conventional antibiotics. One advantage of pages is that they,” Replicate at the site of infection and are thus available where they are most needed” (Phage therapy), whereas antibiotics “are metabolized and eliminated from the body and do not necessarily concentrate at the site of infection” (phage therapy). Also, bacteriophages have seen to have little to no side effects, while antibiotics often have many mild side effects and some more serious side effects. The creation of a virus that is virulent to a certain bacteria can happen within a few days. Trying to find an antibiotic that will attack only one type of bacteria and not hurt the host or other helpful bacteria in the host can take years to develop. Finally, phage therapy will help combat the problem of resistance bacteria, since bacteria don’t become resistant to phages like they can with antibiotics. (Phage therapy) Phage therapy has many positive outcomes including,” they are highly specific and very effective in lysing targeted pathogenic bacteria, safe, and rapidly modifiable to combat the emergence of newly arising bacterial threats” (Sulakvelidze). Bacteriophage therapy is the best way to replace antibiotics in the fight against bacterial infections. 

Many people still think that antibiotics are the best way for bacterial infections to be treated. Antibiotics are still used as the main way to treat bacterial infections around the world. Antibiotics can be an effective way for people to be treated as long as they are used in a responsible way. When working antibiotics can stop a bacterial infection from taking over the body and keep the patient safe. When used only to kill bacterial infections and not for viral infections antibiotics are extremely effective in curing people. Bacterial resistance would be slowed down immensely if the only time antibiotics were used was when they are needed. Antibiotics can help to stop bacterial infections and can suppress the symptoms caused by the bacteria. (Nordqvist) 

Antibiotics aren’t the magic bullet that people always think they are. When antibiotics enter the body, they go into the bloodstream and are sent all throughout the body. The antibiotics will attack bacterial cells but not human cells. Antibiotics are able to tell the difference of human cells and bacterial cells by their different surface structures. One of the main differences is that many bacterial cells have cell walls while human cells have only cell membranes. Also, they are able to tell what receptors the cell has. When an antibiotic is designed, it is designed to kill a certain type of bacteria. The antibiotics have certain receptors that match up to the bacteria’s receptors and allow it to attach to the bacteria.  But the antibiotics aren’t perfect, “kill not only the bad bacteria making you sick, but also your resident friendly bacteria” (What’s an antibiotic). These means that if a person is on an antibiotic for an extended period of time it can start to affect the bacteria that people need to stay healthy. This loss of healthy bacteria can cause there to be more nutrients and space for the unhealthy bacteria. 

Antibiotics played a huge role in medical advances in the past one-hundred years. Antibiotics helped people live longer and made things that used to be deadly, nothing more than a nuisance. These medications are a great tool in the fight against dieses, but they have been abused. They have been given out when they are not needed and this has caused the bacteria to be able to become resistant to antibiotics. Now that so many bacteria have developed resistances to antibiotics scientist have to find a new way to treat bacterial infections. Antibiotics are not the only way to treat a bacterial infection and the other options, like phage therapy, should be explored to ensure that antibiotic resistant bacteria are able to be stopped. 
