2023-09-27 11:03:22
A British study shows a previously unknown new property of antibiotics: instead of fighting bacteria, the drugs sometimes even protect the bacteria from death.
Research from England suggests that antibiotics are not always harmful to bacteria, but can actually extend their lives by alleviating the stress of some bacteria, preventing populations from declining when they are at risk of extinction. The study challenges the current understanding that antibiotics primarily kill bacteria or inhibit their growth and might have long-term implications for treating bacterial infections and understanding antibiotic resistance.
Robert Beardmore from the University of Exeter, lead author of the study, says: “This is the first evidence that antibiotics can promote bacterial survival. To combat global antibiotic resistance, we need to know much more regarding the effects of these drugs on the balance “Understand the bacterial ecosystems exposed to antibiotics, such as the microflora in the gut or in rivers. We do not know how the drugs alter the balance of bacterial populations in these contexts.”
In the study, coliform bacteria (E. coli) were examined in laboratory experiments. But the researcher involved, Emily Wood, emphasizes that antibiotic-resistant bacteria that were also studied did not show the same effect, “so in our study the treatment did not promote resistance, which is unusual. Our next step will be to measure how “These findings alter the dynamics of multispecies bacterial communities.”
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