There are many example strains of pathogenic bacteria that have developed resistant to drugs. The reduced effectiveness of antibiotic drugs for treating infections is increasingly a concern for doctors and patients alike. Pneumonia is caused by a microbial infection of the lungs, and if untreated it can be painful and fatal. Traditionally pneumonia is treated by using antibiotic drugs to combat the infecting microbes. However, Klebsiella pneumoniae is one example of a drug resistant bacteria that causes pneumonia when it infects the lungs. Treating such an infection is very difficult if antibiotics are not effective. Researchers are looking for alternatives to antibiotic drugs to combat pathogenic infections.

One alternative that is being studied is the use of predatory bacteria. Predatory bacteria make a living by “eating” other bacteria. The idea is to let predatory bacteria do what they do best, but for us, by introducing them into tissues that are already infected with bacteria. Once established the predatory bacteria will begin consuming the infectious bacteria. This could be an effective alternative to treat some types infections caused by drug resistant bacteria. Micavibrio aeruginosavorus is a predatory bacteria that attaches and sucks the insides of it’s bacterial prey. It is unlikely that any drug resistant bacteria will also become resistant to this “vampire” bacteria.

Currently studies are being done to first see if these predatory bacteria will be safe to use in humans. Additionally researchers are testing if these bacteria will be effective predators for a variety of drug resistant bacteria. The initial studies are promising. However, using them in humans is complicated by our immune systems, which may see the predatory bacteria as just another foreign body to combat and not as a helpful ally. It is unlike that predatory will be magic bullet for all drug resistant infections, but they might be suited well to topical applications such as burns.

If using predatory bacteria to treat infections seems like a far fetched idea consider the fact that bacteria already play a critical role in human health. Our body’s natural flora of bacteria, called the human microbiota, are vital to our immune systems by producing antibiotics that target foreign bacteria and by simply taking up space. The roles our bacterial residences fill are not all that dissimilar to the roles predatory bacteria could potentially provide.