Human resistance to antibiotics fuels disease, UA provost says in speech

Kristy Mangos Arizona Daily Wildcat Paul Sypherd, UA provost and molecular and cellular biology professor, gives a speech entitled, "A Microbiologist's Look at Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll," yesterday at Gallagher Theatre. Sypherd related controversial issues of the '50s to bacteria.

Bacteria affects human immune systems, preventing them from resisting disease, UA Provost Paul Sypherd told about 60 listeners in Gallagher Theatre.

"These organisms are in large part responsible for the way we use our medicine today," said Sypherd, also a molecular and cellular biology professor. "It's an enormous health hazard."

Sypherd gave the speech entitled, "A Microbiologist's Look at Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll," as part of the weekly University of Arizona Building Academic Community speaker series.

Humans have genes that resist antibiotics like streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline and can reduce the effects of medicine as time passes, Sypherd said.

"The big question is what are these genes doing out there in nature?" he said.

In 1953, a study found that participants were resistant to three types of antibiotics. Seven years later, they had become immune to more than 300.

"There was an emergence of an odd phenomenon," Sypherd said.

He attributed the high death rate of Mexicans during the Cortez and Montezuma battle in the early 16th century to the introduction of new diseases by European migrants. Mexicans had little or no resistance to the new bacteria and were more susceptible to illness than their European counterparts, he said.

Humans are susceptible to a strand of bacteria called shigella, Sypherd said.

Bacteria on an organism is located on its pili, the "sex organ." The pili, which resembles an antennae, attaches to a female organism and transmits chromosomes.

"Something rather magical happens," Sypherd said.

If the transmission cycle is completed, the female mutates into male.

"That is very rare," he said. "It happens once in about 100,000 contacts."

Bacteria can also attach to human cells, contributing to human immune deficiency.

If the organism is successful in attaching to a human cell, it can force antibiotic medicine out.

A bigger problem for humans are bacteria's hair-like flagella, which create easy mobility and the chance to infect new cells.

"They are incredibly complex," Sypherd said.

Art Colgate, a Tucson industrial consultant who attended the speech, said he is glad research is going in the right direction.

"This means science is getting to the bottom of antibiotic resistance," he said. "This is good news to hear that people are working on this because it affects all of us every day."

Stephanie Corns can be reached via e-mail at Stephanie.Corns@wildcat.arizona.edu.