• Question: how does are body create antibiotics

    Asked by jamieh to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 20 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Hi jamieh- our body doesn’t create antibiotics, although it does create other chemicals to fight infections.

      Most antibiotics are made by other microbes, while others are made in laboratories. There are many types, and one thing we must be careful of is that we use them properly. If we don’t, after a while they will not work on some types of bugs- this is called ‘resistance’.

    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Your body actually produces bespoke anti-infective responses called antibodies and cytotoxic T cells (plus a bunch of other things) to deal with infection.

      The antibiotics we prescribe for infections are the result of a similar but less specific response in microbes, notably fungi. We’re exploiting the fact that the billions of microbes growing everywhere are always fighting for resources and will kill each other to get them. That’s what a penicillinium mould is doing when it secretes the bacterial toxin we call penicillin.

    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Our bodies don’t create antibiotics, they create antibodies – proteins which the body uses to identify bacteria and viruses and get rid of them. These come from a type of white blood cell called plasma cells.

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