Great job Lindsy! Would you consider looking at drugs similar to Naloxone in your future experiments as well? Or would you want to keep it isolated to Naloxone at first?
I would keep it to Naloxone first. Getting a “hit” or a compound that either kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria is very uncommon and hard which is one of the reasons why there has not been many new antibiotics developed. I would also want to keep testing Naloxone to see what part of the bacteria it specifically targets. We only know that Naloxone inhibits growth and a range at which it works. With further testing we can find the specific concentration at which it works and how it works on bacteria.
Great job on the presentation! In further research, do you think there are any other drugs similar to Narcan that you believe would treat this bacteria effectively? If so, would you test them in the same way you tested the Narcan?
Off of the top of my head I do not know of any drugs similar to Narcan that would treat bacteria effectively. There are possibly other compounds that may interact with the opioid receptors on macrophages but more testing would have to be done. If there was a drug that could work similarly, I would test the same way. The tests done in our research give a good starting point to see if a compound works and if it kills or inhibits growth of bacteria. If a compound is identified as successful in these tests, further and more complicated tests can be done which could possibly lead to clinical trials.
Great job Lindsy! Do you know of any drugs similar to Naloxone that may have similar effects but at a lower dosage so that it is safer to be administered on humans?
I don’t know of any other drugs that are similar to Naloxone that would work in killing bacteria at a lower and safer dose. I would have to do more testing and research in looking for potential compounds that have similar properties to Naloxone. Though Naloxone may not be safe to use in the human body, it could be used in other ways especially since it is a known safe drug that is used for opioid over doses. Other testing could also be done on Naloxone to find its therapeutic index value which is the ratio of the concentration to which a drug is toxic and the concentration to which a drug is effective. If Naloxone is only a little bit toxic but let’s say theoretically 100% effective then it could in some circumstances be used as an antibiotic.
I don’t know any drugs that are similar to Naloxone in the way that it interferes with receptors that could work as an antibiotic. There are many compounds that work like Naloxone by being bacteriostatic and many undiscovered compounds that can be bacteriostatic but more testing would have to be done to find those compounds. Finding a compound that works in the initial stages of testing are very difficult, so finding one that works is very exciting. I would want to test Naloxone further to see if there are other ways that it could be used with its bacteriostatic properties.
Great job Lindsy! Would you consider looking at drugs similar to Naloxone in your future experiments as well? Or would you want to keep it isolated to Naloxone at first?
I would keep it to Naloxone first. Getting a “hit” or a compound that either kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria is very uncommon and hard which is one of the reasons why there has not been many new antibiotics developed. I would also want to keep testing Naloxone to see what part of the bacteria it specifically targets. We only know that Naloxone inhibits growth and a range at which it works. With further testing we can find the specific concentration at which it works and how it works on bacteria.
Great job on the presentation! In further research, do you think there are any other drugs similar to Narcan that you believe would treat this bacteria effectively? If so, would you test them in the same way you tested the Narcan?
Off of the top of my head I do not know of any drugs similar to Narcan that would treat bacteria effectively. There are possibly other compounds that may interact with the opioid receptors on macrophages but more testing would have to be done. If there was a drug that could work similarly, I would test the same way. The tests done in our research give a good starting point to see if a compound works and if it kills or inhibits growth of bacteria. If a compound is identified as successful in these tests, further and more complicated tests can be done which could possibly lead to clinical trials.
Great job Lindsy! Do you know of any drugs similar to Naloxone that may have similar effects but at a lower dosage so that it is safer to be administered on humans?
I don’t know of any other drugs that are similar to Naloxone that would work in killing bacteria at a lower and safer dose. I would have to do more testing and research in looking for potential compounds that have similar properties to Naloxone. Though Naloxone may not be safe to use in the human body, it could be used in other ways especially since it is a known safe drug that is used for opioid over doses. Other testing could also be done on Naloxone to find its therapeutic index value which is the ratio of the concentration to which a drug is toxic and the concentration to which a drug is effective. If Naloxone is only a little bit toxic but let’s say theoretically 100% effective then it could in some circumstances be used as an antibiotic.
Good job!! Do you think there are any other drugs like Naloxone that could be used on humans for treatment?
I don’t know any drugs that are similar to Naloxone in the way that it interferes with receptors that could work as an antibiotic. There are many compounds that work like Naloxone by being bacteriostatic and many undiscovered compounds that can be bacteriostatic but more testing would have to be done to find those compounds. Finding a compound that works in the initial stages of testing are very difficult, so finding one that works is very exciting. I would want to test Naloxone further to see if there are other ways that it could be used with its bacteriostatic properties.
Great presentation!!
Thank you!