Molecular genetics and evolution of antibiotic resistant staphylococci

由金黄色葡萄球菌(俗称金黄色葡萄球菌)引起的潜在威胁生命的感染，通常作为并发症出现在医院内的患者身上。这些感染危及患者的健康，并危及他们从最初入院时的病情中恢复过来，这大大增加了医疗成本。金黄色葡萄球菌引起的医院获得性感染是澳大利亚和全球的一个主要问题。这一问题在很大程度上是由于医院中存在对大多数临床上有用的抗生素产生抗药性的菌株，因此很难根除。这项研究项目将揭示目前在澳大利亚、美国、欧洲和东南亚的医院中流行的金黄色葡萄球菌菌株的详细信息。它还将为这种有机体如此容易产生抗药性的机制提供重要的见解，并确定促进抗药性菌株发展的因素。这一研究项目的结果将导致改进临床菌株的特征和抗生素耐药性监测的方法。这一发现也将与其他类型的抗药性细菌相关。最重要的是，应用这些研究产生的知识有可能最大限度地减少出现更具耐药性的菌株，从而延长现有和未来抗生素的有效性。如果我们要避免类似于引入抗生素之前的情况，设计和执行限制耐药细菌扩散的战略是至关重要的，当时严重的传染病往往无法治愈。

Potentially life-threatening infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly known as Golden Staph, often arise as complications in patients within hospitals. These infections compromise the health of the patient and jeopardise their recovery from the condition for which they were initially admitted, which significantly increases healthcare costs. Hospital-acquired infections caused by Golden Staph are a major problem in Australia and globally. The problem is largely due to the presence in hospitals of strains that have become resistant to most clinically-useful antibiotics and are therefore very difficult to eradicate. This research project will reveal detailed information about strains of Golden Staph that are currently prevalent in hospitals in Australia, USA, Europe, and South East Asia. It will also provide important insights into the mechanisms that enable this organism to become resistant so readily, and identify factors that promote the development of resistant strains. The results of this research project will lead to improved methods for the characterisation of clinical strains and the monitoring of antibiotic resistance. The findings will also be of relevance to other types of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Most importantly, the application of knowledge arising from these studies has potential to minimise the emergence of strains that are even more resistant, thereby extending the effectiveness of existing and future antibiotics. The design and implementation of strategies to limit the proliferation of resistant bacteria are essential if we are to avoid a scenario similar to that prior to the introduction of antibiotics, when serious infectious diseases were often untreatable.