Author: Brendan Trafford
Almost every treatment attempted to fight MRSA has ended up failing to some extent due to MRSA’s uncanny ability to form resistances. As pointed out throughout this essay MRSA can come in many forms which means humanity may need to fight different forms of MRSA with different treatments. One antibiotic in development called Quinupristin-dalfopristin, is a protein synthesis inhibitor of gram positive bacteria. It works like erythromycin and lincosamide but if the strain of MRSA has resistance to those antibiotics it could have trouble working (Lowy, 2003). Another class of antibiotics that are being made are called diphenylureas. There are two forms of this antibiotic and then work by inhibiting the growth of MRSA bacterium (Mohammad et al., 2017). Two promising outcomes from the research with these molecules is that they work on bacteria resistant to mupirocin and vancomycin and even when they are exposed to the most resistant MRSA strains the bacteria showed no ability to become resistant to them (Mohammad et al., 2017). Another extremely surprising antibiotic in testing is called lugdunin and is produced by Staphylococcus lugdunensis, a species of bacteria found in human nasal passages. It produces lugdunin to kill Staphylococcus aureus within humans and MRSA has shown no form of resistance to the antibiotic (Zipperer et al., 2016). This is massively influential because it would be the first time a commensal bacterium within a human host produces an antibiotic.
Picture of the shape of the diphenylurea antibiotics currently under testing for effectiveness against MRSA. Provided by ( Mohammad et al., 2017)
Many of the methods for prevention of MRSA are common steps taken to prevent any disease. For prevention of CA-MRSA individuals are encouraged to wash their hands, not share their drinks/food with anyone, clean yourself thoroughly after being involved in athletic games or practices and wash all clothes/linens at high temperatures and with bleach if possible (MRSA Infection, Mayo Clinic). For HA-MRSA it is a lot harder to prevent disease because surgeries constantly open the body to foreign organisms and there is a high concentration of MRSA that is most likely resistant to many antibiotics. Quarantine of contagious patients and isolation of those who have compromised immune systems is a must, but new means to kill the bacteria on surfaces is something of peak interest. One example of this is a polyurethane with silver chloride called Optifoam
(Percival, 2018). This polymer could be used to build certain tools used in the healthcare field and would naturally disinfect itself due to the oligodynamic effect of metals when they interact with biological life. Most importantly newer and better antiseptics must come out to fight the spread of MRSA.
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