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Understanding antibiotic resistance

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Understanding antibiotic resistance provided by OpenLearn is a comprehensive online course, which lasts for 24 hours worth of material. Upon completion of the course, you can receive an e-certificate from OpenLearn. The course is taught in Englishand is Free Certificate. Visit the course page at OpenLearn for detailed price information.

The Open University via OpenLearn
24 hours worth of material
Self Paced
Overview

  • Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat, compromising our ability to treat infections and increasing the risk of routine surgery. Resistant infections are increasing due to overuse of antibiotics...

Syllabus

    • Introduction and guidance
    • Introduction and guidance
    • What is a badged course?
    • How to get a badge
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week1Week 1: A future without antibiotics?
    • Introduction
    • 1 Bacteria and infectious disease
    • 1.1 Bacterial growth
    • 1.2 Common bacterial pathogens of humans
    • 2 Antibiotics
    • 2.1 Classification
    • 2.2 How much do you know about antibiotics?
    • 3 Pre-antibiotic era
    • 4 Modern times
    • 4.1 The rise of antibiotic resistance
    • 4.2 Superbugs
    • 5 Case study: the link between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance
    • 6 What does the future hold?
    • 7 This week’s quiz
    • 8 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week2Week 2: How do antibiotics work?
    • Introduction
    • 1 Selective toxicity
    • 1.1 Cell structure
    • 1.2 Potential bacterial targets for antibiotics
    • 2 Antibiotic modes of action
    • 2.1 Inhibitors of cell wall synthesis
    • 2.2 Inhibitors of protein synthesis
    • 2.3 Inhibitors of nucleic acid synthesis
    • 2.4 Inhibitors of metabolic reactions
    • 3 Case study: mechanism of ß-lactams
    • 4 Types of antibiotic
    • 4.1 Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
    • 4.2 Activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
    • 4.3 Bactericidal versus bacteriostatic antibiotics
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week3Week 3: How do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?
    • Introduction
    • 1 Antibiotic resistance mechanisms
    • 1.1 Modifying the antibiotic target
    • 1.2 Destroying or modifying the antibiotic molecule
    • 1.3 Preventing entry, increasing exit
    • 2 Intrinsic and acquired resistance
    • 2.1 Intrinsic resistance
    • 2.2 Introducing acquired resistance
    • 3 Case study: resistance to third-generation cephalosporins
    • 3.1 Intrinsic resistance to cephalosporins
    • 3.2 Mechanisms of cephalosporin resistance
    • 3.2.1 PBP2a – a PBP that doesn’t bind cephalosporins
    • 3.2.2 Extended spectrum β-lactamases
    • 3.2.3 Porin expression and cephalosporin resistance in K. pneumoniae
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week4Week 4: Why are so many bacteria resistant to antibiotics?
    • Introduction
    • 1 How do mutations lead to resistance?
    • 1.1 From genetic information to protein function
    • 1.2 Genetic mutations and protein structure
    • 1.3 Transmission of mutations by vertical gene transfer
    • 2 Horizontal transfer
    • 2.1 Plasmids
    • 2.2 Conjugation
    • 2.3 Transformation
    • 2.4 Transduction
    • 3 Why are so many bacteria resistant to antibiotics?
    • 3.1 Evolution and natural selection
    • 3.2 Evolving resistance to antibiotics
    • 3.3 Experimentally evolving antibiotic resistance
    • 4 Case study: resistance to cephalosporins
    • 4.1 The origin of CTX-M-type ESBLs
    • 4.2 The rapid spread of CTX-M genes
    • 4.3 Mutations in CTX-M-type ESBLs
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week5Week 5: How antibiotic resistance has become such a big problem
    • Introduction
    • 1 The antibiotic resistance crisis
    • 2 How antibiotic resistance spreads
    • 3 Poor hygiene and infection control
    • 4 Overuse of antibiotics
    • 4.1 Factors leading to the overuse of antibiotics
    • 5 Misuse of antibiotics
    • 5.1 Treatment of non-bacterial infections
    • 5.2 Wrong therapeutic use
    • 6 The antibiotic discovery void
    • 7 Inadequate diagnostics and global surveillance
    • 8 Case study: Neisseria gonorrhoeae
    • 9 This week’s quiz
    • 10 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week6Week 6: Restocking the antibiotic armoury
    • Introduction
    • 1 Origins of antibiotics
    • 1.1 Natural antibiotics
    • 1.2 Synthetic and semi-synthetic antibiotics
    • 2 The manufacturing process
    • 2.1 Producing natural antibiotics
    • 2.2 Producing synthetic and semi-synthetic antibiotics
    • 3 Current status of antibiotics
    • 4 Barriers to new antibiotics – and possible solutions
    • 4.1 Discovery barriers
    • 4.2 Scientific barriers
    • 5 Making existing antibiotics more effective
    • 5.1 Resistance breakers
    • 5.2 Nano-encapsulation
    • 5.3 Chemical modification
    • 6 Case study: cephalosporin antibiotics
    • 6.1 Different generations of cephalosporins
    • 7 ‘Bioprospecting’ for new antibiotics
    • 7.1 Back to the soil
    • 7.2 Antibiotics from leafcutter ants
    • 7.3 Antibiotics from extreme environments
    • 7.4 Looking closer to home
    • 8 This week’s quiz
    • 9 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week7Week 7: Reducing antibiotic use
    • Introduction
    • 1 Why do we need to reduce antibiotic use?
    • 2 A simple way to reduce the spread of infections
    • 2.1 How infections are transmitted
    • 2.1.1 Direct person-to-person transmission
    • 2.1.2 Indirect transmission of pathogens
    • 2.2 The role of sanitation and hygiene
    • 2.3 The role of hand washing in reducing the spread of bacteria
    • 3 Case study: reducing antibiotic resistance by improving hand washing
    • 4 Rapid infection diagnostics
    • 4.1 Traditional approaches to infection diagnosis
    • 4.2 The perfect rapid diagnostic test
    • 4.3 What rapid diagnostic tests detect
    • 4.3.1 Detecting the patient infection response
    • 4.3.2 Detecting the pathogen
    • 4.3.3 The UTI dipstick test
    • 4.3.4 The Nordmann/Dortet/Poirel test
    • 4.4 The future for rapid diagnostics
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week8Week 8: Alternatives to antibiotics
    • Introduction
    • 1 Disrupting bacterial communication
    • 1.1 Using quorum sensing to treat infections
    • 1.2 Using quorum sensing to reduce antibiotic resistance
    • 2 Other ways to kill bacteria
    • 2.1 Phage therapy
    • 2.2 Lysin treatment
    • 3 Exploiting the natural defences of bacteria
    • 3.1 Treating infections with Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
    • 4 A lesson from history
    • 4.1 Natural honey
    • 4.2 Metals
    • 4.2.1 Modern antibacterial applications of metals
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary
    • Take the next step
    • Tell us what you think
    • References
    • Acknowledgements

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