In the long struggle against bacteria, antibacterial agents are undoubtedly a sharp instrument in the hands of humankind. From hand-washing fluids in daily use, baptism, to antibiotics in the medical field, they provide us with a way to defend against bacteria. However, there is a perception that people’s nerves are numbed: bacterial antibacterial agents do not produce adaptive changes. This seemingly reassuring idea, while hiding the crisis, is an area of error that needs urgent redress.
Antibacterial agents are of a wide variety and their mechanisms of operation vary. Antibacterial agents such as alcohol, with their powerful permeability, are capable of rapidly penetrating bacteria’ cellular membranes, condensing protein mutations within cells, making bacteria “paralyzed” at short notice, and antibacterial antibacterial agents, which are aimed at the precisions necessary for bacteria’ growth and reproduction, such as cell-wall synthesis and protein synthesis, to disrupt bacteria’ “lifelines”, inhibiting their growth or directly killing them. When these antibacterial agents were first introduced, their effects were amazing, and many of the bacterial infections that had been raging were effectively controlled, resulting in a real sense of the health security provided by technology.
But bacteria are by no means dead, and they are incredibly resilient. Under the continuing “pressure” of antibacterial agents, bacteria have begun a silent “evolution” journey. In the case of antibiotics, for example, most of the sensitive bacteria are inhibited or die when bacteria are first exposed to antibiotics below lethal doses, but there are always very few bacterial individuals who are able to resist antibiotics by carrying specific genetic variations or by taking resistance samples from outside. These “drug-resistant pioneers” survive in the harsh conditions created by antibacterial agents and quickly reproduce their offspring, passing on the resistant genes over time, with a marked increase in the resistance of the entire bacterial community.
This adaptive change is also being followed in everyday life. The family uses the same antibacterial hand-washing fluid for a long period of time and is initially able to efficiently remove the common bacteria on hand, but over time some bacteria have gradually adapted to the antibacterial ingredients in the hand-washing fluid, and after hand-washing the number of bacterial residues has begun to increase and the risk of infection has increased. In hospitals, the frequent use of various types of antibacterial drugs is a “high-risk area” where drug-resistant bacteria are bred. This is typical of the methooxysilincin-yellow fungus (MRSA), which produces resistance to a wide range of traditional antibiotics, rendering otherwise routine treatments ineffective, with patients at higher risk of infection and longer recovery cycles, and even life-threatening.
The reasons for the adaptive changes in bacteria are multiple. On the one hand, bacteria have extremely high rates of reproduction, and under appropriate conditions they can reproduce generations in a few short hours, which provides ample opportunities for genetic mutation and increases the probability of producing resistance. On the other hand, bacteria can also exchange genes among individuals and even species in a way called “horizontal gene transfer”, share “secretaries” of resistance and accelerate the spread of resistance.
It is essential to recognize this characteristic of bacteria. For the general population, the rational use of antibacterial products in daily life avoids the long-term single use of the same antibacterial agent, the periodic replacement of different types of products and the reduction of opportunities for bacteria to produce adaptability. At the same time, good hygiene practices, such as hand-washing and keeping the environment clean, reduce the risk of infection in many ways. In the medical field, it is more important for health-care personnel to be cautious in the use of drugs, to select antibacterial drugs in strict conformity with the results of drug-sensitive tests, to control the dose of drugs and the course of treatment, and to prevent the creation and spread of resistant bacteria.
The misperception that bacterial antibacterial agents do not produce adaptive changes should be abandoned. Only by confronting the “evolutionary” capacity of bacteria can humans, in this long-lasting battle with bacteria, be flexible in their application of anti-bacterial techniques and constantly adapt their strategies to protect their health.
