5,000-year-old bacteria from an ice cave are resistant to modern antibiotics
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Scientists have discovered that a virus trapped in an ice cave for 5,000 years is resistant to several modern drugs.
The bacterium was found in the Scarisoara Ice Cave in Romania, where researchers excavated a 25-meter ice core representing nearly 13,000 years of glacial history.
The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
To prevent contamination, ice samples are carefully stored and transported to the lab while frozen. In the ice, the scientists isolated a type of bacteria called Psychrobacter SC65A.3.
Inside the cave seen here, scientists found bacteria stored for thousands of years that are resistant to modern treatments. (Stock)
Although it is thousands of years old, this strain was found to be resistant to 10 antibiotics used today to treat serious infections.
These include drugs such as rifampicin, vancomycin and ciprofloxacin, the study found.
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“The 10 antibiotics to which we found resistance are widely used in oral and injectable therapies used to treat a range of serious bacterial infections in the clinic,” said Cristina Purcarea, senior scientist at the Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy, in a press release.
The animal was discovered in a Romanian cave during the excavation of a 25-meter ice core. (Stock)
The researchers tested the ancient strain against 28 antibiotics from 10 drug classes and identified more than 100 genes linked to antibiotic resistance.
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“Studying bacteria like Psychrobacter SC65A.3 retrieved from millennial ice caves reveals how antibiotic resistance evolved naturally in the environment, long before modern antibiotics were used,” said Purcarea.
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The findings suggest that antibiotic resistance existed in nature long before the development of modern medicine, according to the researchers.
In testing the classic strain with 28 antibiotics from 10 drug families, the scientists (not pictured) found more than 100 genes linked to antibiotic resistance. (Stock)
This strain has also shown resistance to drugs including trimethoprim, clindamycin and metronidazole, which are used to treat infections of the lungs, urinary tract, skin and reproductive system.
Study limitations
The study examined one type of bacteria from a single cave sample, and there is no evidence that the ancient microbe is infecting humans or spreading, the researchers said.
Experts also pointed out that Psychrobacter is an environmental bacterium that does not have antibiotic “breakpoints”, which are the set numbers that tell doctors that the bacterium is officially “resistant” to an antibiotic.
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Because this natural virus has no health testing standards, its resistance in the lab cannot be interpreted in the same way that doctors classify dangerous hospital bugs.
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