Strategies to save our world from antimicrobial resistance
We all know that we need antibiotics and vaccines are needed to cure the diseases. But it’s been decades since any new antimicrobial molecules are discovered. The world needs new antibiotics ASAP. There are many diseases like HIV, Cancers that doesn’t even have a medicine to cure the disease completely even now. And apart from all this the main and huge problem is that the microorganisms are developing resistance against existing antibiotics and making them less efficient. Resistant microbes are increasing in enormous rate. Multi drug resistant bacteria like Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida auris makes the process of developing and curing the disease harder. A scientist Jim O’Neill estimated that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will cause 50 million death by 2050 if no serious action and precaution is taken. Currently 700000 people dies globally every year due to AMR.
Drug repurposing is the best way to overcome these problems. During drug repurposing we find new ways to use an already existing drug and the benefit of repurposing a drug is that it will consume less time and it also saves money which is the prime goal of every pharmaceutical company. Everyone likes to make their work easy and less complicated and drug repurposing does exactly that. When we repurpose a drug, we already know the drug’s pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic and toxicity profile of the drug and that saves lots of time during clinical trials.
If we develop a drug from scratch then it will take at least 20 years to launch it in market because a drug has to pass all clinical trials and animal model testing and what not. A drug should also not cause any severe side effect and it should be Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved. All of these things make the process of launching a drug in the market more difficult than it already is.
So as compare to developing a drug, the drug repurposing makes the process a lot easier. Few examples of repurposed drugs are Sildenafil which was first developed to treat hypertension but then it was repurposed for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension as sildenafil helps to increase the blood flow in the organs. Aspirin is also a great example of repurposed drug; it was actually the first drug that was repurposed. It was initially used as pain killer but then later it was repurposed as antiplatelet aggregation drug. There are many antiviral, antibacterial, antiprotozoal, antifungal repurposed drugs are available now and many drugs are in making.
If we want to secure our future then it is absolutely necessary to repurpose and make more antibiotics and medicine. The other important thing is to complete the dose of antibiotics as per doctor says. Many of the time when an ill person stops feeling sick, they stop taking their medicine which can make the microorganism resistant and also the medicine will develop resistant against the body and our body will reject that medicine if the person became infected with the disease or microbe again. So, it’s necessary to complete the dosage of medicine as doctor says.
Last but not the least. Eat healthy, maintain social distancing, exercise and stay safe. Remember you can make the future of the world better.
