Antibiotics therapeutic uses

Once an antibiotic producer has been identified, the next stage is to produce sufficient of the antibiotic to evaluate its potential for therapeutic use. Questions, such as, is it toxic to humans , is it effective against disease organisms , does it possess suitable characteristics (for example solubility, chemical stability) for use as a medicine , need answering. Let us assume that a new, potentially useful antibiotic has been discovered. The key questions then become, how can the desired material be produced in the most cost effective way is it possible to produce variants of the antibiotic which have desirable properties, such as greater effectivity against infection, cheaper ways to produce it or increased stability ... 

The treatment of HP has become increasingly difficult due to the frequency of antibiotic resistance and recurrence after successful treatment. In Peru, the recurrence rate of the infection is as high as 73% even after successful eradication. In this instance, recurrence is not attributed to antibiotic resistance but to re-infection of patients. In the United States, resistant HP is also of concern. The Helicobacter pylori Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Program (HARP) is a multicenter US network that tracks HP patterns of resistance. In 2004, HARP reported that 34% of 347 HP isolates tested were resistant to one or more antibiotics commonly used to treat HP infections.In the US, most antibiotic resistance is associated with metronidazole and clarithromycin, both standard treatment options for HP. Thus, antibiotic resistance and high re-infection rates strongly argue for the development of new therapeutic modalities to prevent and treat HP infections worldwide. 

Let us recall, however, that Alexander Fleming first discovered penicillin in 1929. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 along with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who obtained it in a pure state in 1940. The first human therapeutic use took place in London in 1941. The term antibiotic was coined by Rene Dubois in 1940. 

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