Resistance to antibiotics found in isolated Amazonian tribe

In the mountains of the Amazon, the Yanomami live an existence separate from civilization as we know it. Discovered in 2009 in Venezuela, with their exact location being been kept secret to protect them, the Yanomami presented the ability to compare the bacteria in their guts with ours (us being those living in industrialized nations) to see how our lifestyle has impacted the bacteria inside of us.

Unsurprisingly, these remote people had vastly greater microbial diversity than people living in industrial nations (the highest microbiome diversity ever recorded). More surprisingly, and in the same research published in Science on April 17th, 2015, the Yanomami Amerindians carried bacteria with antibiotic resistance genes despite having never had contact with antibiotics.

So Yanomami not only had more diverse bacteria than semitransculturated Guahibo Amerindians and Malawians (P<0.001 in an ANOVA HSD) with the lowest variability, but they also carried bacteria able to resist antibiotics like penicillin.

To be more specific, the bacteria from the 131 Amerindians included an extended-spectrum cblA β-lactamase that supplies resistance to 5 later-generation antibiotics, including a fourth-generation cephalosporin and a synthetic monobactam, and penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) resistant to the third-generation cephalosporin ceftazidime. But how could can this be, since they’ve never even encounted first generation antibiotics?

The answer is luckily within reach: almost all antibacterials are based on natural compounds that bacteria and fungi use to compete. In the same way that many different militaries around the world use bullet proof vests, it should be no surprise that the gut bacteria of even isolated tribes possess genes to help them resist “weapons” (which are antibiotic substances) that are relatively widespread in the microbial world.

This then raises the question as to why antibiotics worked for so long, and why they worked at all in civilization? The answer is about concentration, and immune tipping-points.

Concentration refers both to the concentration of the antibiotic drug and to the number of bacteria per cubic inch of your body. So while a bacteria may be able to break down a few molecules, it may still be overwhelmed by a greater number of molecules of the same drug (which is why we have the MIC test or minimal inhibitory concentration). Thus, although some bacteria in the Yanomami guts may bear antibiotic resistance, these genes are not likely in enough of the bacteria to make them “immune” to the drugs.

The second point, immune tipping points, refers to your body’s ability to defeat an invading microbe. The border between an infection and a disease refers to when enough infectious particles exists to overwhelm the immune system and reduce tissue function. So while every cut lets in a few invaders that your body then reacts to and destroys, not every cut on your thumb leads to a serious infection and a swollen useless thumb. This is similar to how pretty much everything we eat and every breath we inhale has bacteria in it, included some which are potentially harmful, but we very rarely actually get sick from any of them.

So antibiotics are not there to necessarily kill ALL the bacteria when you take them, but to kill enough to allow your body to finish the job. Only with repeated low-dose use can resistant bacteria become the majority.

Antibiotic resistance exists in nature: if it didn’t then there wouldn’t be bacteria and fungi producing these substances in a war for dominance and then continuing to survive in these same places. Apparently, a greater diversity of gut bacteria is also what is found in nature, with increasing degrees of separation from civilization appearing to correlate with increased microbial diversity. So, is the take home message that industrial civilization has a hard time not reducing diversity, even in the bodies of its citizens?

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