What is antimicrobial resistance? Understanding the global health threat

What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?

Jon Stokes, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, says AMR is a phenomenon through which antimicrobial medications — like antibiotics — stop working as intended.

Indeed, microbes like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites can evolve over time to resist the medications that have long treated the infections that they cause.

Stokes calls the phenomenon “an under-discussed pandemic,” noting that, in 2019 alone, 1.3 million people died from drug-resistant infections. What’s worse, he says, is the number of AMR-related deaths is expected to balloon to 10 million per year by 2050 if drug resistance is left unchecked.

Stokes believes that discovering new antimicrobial chemical matter faster and more affordably will be key to ensuring that we have a steady, reliable supply of working antibiotics and other similar drugs in the future.

“One approach that we’re taking here at McMaster is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) methods,” explains Stokes, a member of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. “AI can help us by increasing the rate at which we can discover novel chemical matter with antibacterial properties, and also novel chemical matter that is inherently safe for human use.”

AMR has been declared among the top global health and development threats by the World Health Organization (WHO), because it puts “the gains of modern medicine at risk,” making things like infections, caesarean sections, and cancer chemotherapy much riskier.

“Antibiotics are the bedrock of modern medicine,” agrees Stokes, whose research supports initiatives at McMaster’s Global Nexus. “They not only treat infections, but also make surgeries and a range of other medical treatments possible. It is vital that we continue to discover new drugs so that these life-saving procedures remain available to patients in the future.”

November 18-24 is World AMR Awareness Week, an annual effort to raise awareness about drug resistance. In this video, Jon Stokes explores the significance of antibiotics in particular, and shares how his team is working to discover new ones.