Sugar increases the therapeutic effect of antibiotics

A recent study conducted by Boston University scientists and published in today's journal Nature suggests that sugar not only makes it easier to take medicine but also promotes the use of antagonists. born.

Although research has so far only been conducted with animals and stopped at preliminary conclusions, scientists believe that sugar is really effective in boosting performance. treatment results of some antibiotics.

If this study is applied, scientists hope that it can improve the use of the drug without creating new drugs that cost a lot.

Chronic bacteria (persistent bacteria)

Some bacterial infections, including staph, streptococci, tuberculosis, ear infections and urinary tract infections, are all chronic diseases and can still recur even after treated with antibiotics.Why is that?

Because there are some bacteria that belong to the 'persisters ' group. The patient is infected with this bacterium, the disease can persist for months, and can recur even if there are signs of recovery. Not only that, this bacterium is also capable of spreading very quickly, which can infect other parts of the body.

' Persisters' are not the same as resistant bacteria. The reason they exist is because of the mechanism of "pretending to die": They close the normal metabolic function and lie dormant in the body.

Scientists use sugar to aim to awaken these bacteria and "lure" them to feed them. Sugar will stimulate these bacteria, bring them back to life and then destroy them.

Professor Collins (of Boston University) and his colleagues tested this new method in mice with urinary tract infections. The results showed that antibiotic treatment plus sugar could kill 99.9 percent of 'persisters' (specifically E. coli bacteria). Treatment with antibiotics alone is not effective.

However, this new treatment has only been applied to antibiotics called aminoglycosides, including gentamicin and kanamycin. Combining different types of sugars can also make a difference. Researchers are currently investigating whether sugar can be used to improve the use of anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Difficulties

Referring to this new study, Nathalie Q. Balaban, a researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said : ' This is an interesting study. Scientists have shown that they can fool even the most stubborn bacteria '.

However, according to the researcher, the experiment was only conducted with mice. Therefore, scientists need to do more research to check if there is a similar effect to humans.

And, of course, what this researcher wonders is how to get sugar into the parts of the body that are infected. This is a great challenge for scientists.