Honey for Antibiotics!

Welcome to my blog about biology. This is my second post and in this post I will be writing about how recent news is connected to biology. The link to the news report is here. By the end of this post, you should know how bee's honey can be an alternative to antibiotics, what is antibiotic resistance and why finding an alternative to antibiotics is an important step in medicine.

The News
Scientists have recently discovered that the honey from bees mixed with 13 different lactic acid bacteria can kill antibiotic resistant bacteria. This was shown in the news by the example of the horse's leg infected with bacteria being healed using a mixture of lactic acid bacteria and honey . The veterinarians and specialists did not know what to do and no antibiotics helped them. However, when the mixture of honey was spread over the wound, it started healing and in about a week, the wound healed. The lactic acid bacteria were taken from the stomach of the bees.

How is this connected and why will it help? [1]
In our century, we have a problem of bacteria being antibiotic resistant. Antibiotic resistance is when the applied antibiotic no longer works on the target bacteria and the bacteria still grow in the presence of said antibiotic. This happens because some bacteria are less susceptible to the action of the antibiotic and they live on when the susceptible bacteria die. These bacteria then replicate and outnumber the susceptible bacteria. This is one way of how they naturally gain antibiotic resistance. Bacteria can also become resistant by a gene mutation and by acquiring resistance from other bacteria.

The gene mutation in bacteria can result in many different types of resistance. Some mutations can develop a specific enzyme which deactivates antibiotics and other mutations can result in the cell target of the antibiotic being removed. There are also specific types of mutation which closes the ports from which the antibiotic enters the bacteria cell and another mutation pushes the antibiotic out of the bacteria cell before it starts working.

Resistance from other bacteria can also be acquired several ways. The first way is when bacteria “mate” and exchange their DNA with one another, this is called “conjugation”. The DNA mixes and the part of the DNA which is responsible for resistance is now in the bacterium which was not resistant. Viruses can also pass their resistant DNA into the bacteria. 

Source: http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v4/n1/images/nrmicro1325-f2.jpg

Have we found a solution?
As this phenomenon is widely spread all over the world, a new alternative to antibiotics must be found. One of the alternatives is as said before, special honey. This can be a very useful alternative as it is not as expensive as antibiotic production and most people like honey. In addition, the scientists have already been testing the special honey out on patients and it has been giving out surprisingly positive and quick results. This gives us hope that soon, ill patients with incurable diseases will get well and antibiotic resistance will exist no more.

Reference:
"Bee’s honey could replace antibiotics." RSS. http://www.euronews.com/2014/09/15/bee-s-honey-could-replace-antibiotics/ (accessed October 9, 2014).

"General Background: About Antibiotic Resistance." Tufts University. http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/about_antibioticres.shtml (accessed October 6, 2014).