About argo

The Introduction of antibiotics in medicine was accidental with the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. During Second World War period, technology for mass production of penicillin was optimized and golden era of antimicrobial chemotherapy was ushered in. Antibiotics were considered as wonder drugs that kill infectious bacteria without significantly harming the host. After more than 50 years of widespread use, however, many antibiotics don't pack the same punch they once did.

Bacteria have devised methods to inactivate most antibiotics including vancomycin. Many diseases are increasingly difficult to treat because of the emergence of drug-resistant organisms including HIV and other viruses; bacteria such as staphylococci, enterococci, and E. coli; respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis and influenza; food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, sexually transmitted organisms such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Candida and other fungal infections; and parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum, the cause of malaria.

If the trend continues unchecked, the antimicrobial chemotherapy will be ineffective and a general bacterial infection can become deadly. To control this we need to have sufficient data on the spread and prevalence if antibiotic resistance genes in microbes organized in a systematic manner.

Antibiotic Resistance Genes Online (ARGO) is a database envisaging to collect & catalogue all the antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria. Antibiotic resistance develops when the organism acquire a gene which can counter these drugs by mechanisms like changing the antibiotic structure, sequestering the antibiotic or by efflux pumps. The current version of ARGO contains genes responsible for Tetracyclines, beta-lactams and Vancomycin.

The resistance gene sequences in ARGO are extracted from Genbank Flat file release 142.0. These genes are unique sequences reported to Genbank, and is expected to have undergone later transfer and spread. Hence having idea of such sequences from a particular geographical location would help in aiding the research in drug resistance.