"Antibiotic resistance clue found" -4

"Antibiotic resistance clue found"
BBC World News. Retrieved at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8248020.stm

Researchers have recently found that some bacteria have been able to create a defense mechanism against antibiotics. The defense mechanism that is produced is a product of nitric oxide, which affects some main targets in a large range of antibiotics. An expert said that if they could inhibit the nitric oxide that is being produced by the bacteria, then it could possibly be an important step to killing off certain bacterium with a smaller, less toxic dose of antibiotics. Resistance for antibiotics by the bacteria MRSA is a developing problem and scientists need to find out how to stop them from canceling out the antibiotics. Researchers found that the bacterium produces nitric oxide, which is molecule that consists of one nitrogen atom and one oxygen atom. This nitric oxide increase is their resistance to antibiotics. The researchers found an enzyme that produced the nitric oxide when the bacterium detected the antibiotic. Researchers are pleased to say that instead of having to invent a new type of antibiotic, their main goal is to just detect and figure out how the enzyme works and just stop its production of the nitric oxide.