It’s the Little Things in Life…
‘Dierkens’; the term that sprung to mind when Leeuwenhoek caught his first glimpse of the microbial world. Dutch for ‘tiny animals’ or ‘animalcules’, Leeuwenhoek’s first description of microorganisms became the talk of the 17th century scientific community. Even now we are mesmerised by the little things we can see. From the era of single lensed microscopes to the technologically advanced microscopes of today, we can visualise the intricate details of a world we were once too blind to see.
The little things in life are important. Microbes are both our friends and foe. An explosion in research within the microbiome field has indicated that our little friends can protect us, produce vitamins and help us digest our food. Yet, not all our relationships are healthy. Neisseria meningitidis can exist as a commensal. Then, in a turn of molecular events, the once friendly bacterium is able to invade. Other microbes are users; they steal, hide and cheat. Parasites such as tapeworms reside in our intestinal lumen and absorb our nutrients, often without us even knowing. Some are simply deadly; Plasmodium falciparum killed 435,000 people in 2017. We are at war with an army we can barely see.
Our minute enemies are rather cunning, the experts in guerrilla warfare. They are evasive and elusive creatures that have outsmarted some of the greatest discoveries in science. The parasites and pathogens are a testament to this. Plasmodium species show phenotypic resistance to the Nobel-prize winning drug artemisinin. AND, there are bacteria no longer susceptible to every drug on the NHS’ treatment guidelines. As Lewis Carroll’ Red Queen says ‘now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place’. The pathogens are playing ‘catch me if you can’, but we are running out of tools to keep up. Antimicrobial drugs do not make dollar signs appear in the eyes of pharmaceutical company bosses and the little things seem to always run faster. And so, like many people after completing their first week of New Year’s resolutions, we are soon to stop running and give up.
The irony of the Red Queen Hypothesis is there is a solution in the title of its source.
Through the looking glass, we can see the ‘dierkins’ or the ‘tiny animals’ that Leeuwenhoek once described. Except, now with new technology we have 2020 vision that can see beyond the realms of the organism level. We can see and visualise molecules and track their evolution. We can predict harmful epidemics using surveillance methods. We can diagnose infections faster than ever before. The best thing is we can see those tiny little things… but they don’t know we are looking.
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Nina 