Cave-dwelling bacteria offer insight into antibiotic resistance

Resilient bacteria found in one of the world's deepest caves could offer new insight into medical understanding of antibiotic resistance.

Scientists from McMaster University and the University of Akron have discovered an unusual prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, which has been isolated from human contact for more than four million years.

None of these strains are harmful and have never been exposed to any human-created antibiotics, but almost all were resistant to at least one treatment, with some showing resilience against as many as 14 antibiotic types.

This shows that resistance can be hard-wired into bacteria for billions of years rather than acquired by necessity, a discovery with numerous implications.

Gerry Wright, scientific director of the Michael G DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University, said: "It suggests that there are far more antibiotics in the environment that could be found and used to treat currently untreatable infections."

Antimicrobial resistance has become a growing concern in recent years, leading to the topic being chosen by the World Health Organization as the theme for World Health Day 2011.