Article
Article
Drug resistance
Article By:
Diekema, Daniel J. Department of Pathology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa.
Last reviewed:February 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.205600
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- Drug resistance, published June 2014:Download PDF
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The ability of an organism to resist the action of an inhibitory molecule or compound. Drug resistance is the decreased reactivity of living organisms to the injurious actions of certain drugs and chemicals. Examples of drug resistance include disease-causing bacteria evading the activity of antibiotics, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) resisting antiviral agents, and human cancer cells replicating despite the presence of chemotherapy agents. There are many ways in which cells or organisms become resistant to drugs, and some organisms have developed many resistance mechanisms, with each being specific to a different drug. Drug resistance is best understood as it applies to bacteria, and the increasing resistance of many common disease-causing bacteria to antibiotics is a global crisis (Fig. 1). See also: Antibiotic; Antibiotic resistance; Antimicrobial agents; Bacteria; Bacteriology; Chemotherapy and other antineoplastic drug treatments; Medical bacteriology
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