Researchers Suggest Evolutionary Principles May Help Ward Off Antibiotic Resistance

(Newswire.net — June 13, 2022) Orlando, FL — Multiple research studies have been carried out to look into the techniques potentially helpful in fighting antibiotic resistance. 

A study highlights that a sequential treatment involving the use of antibiotics that are the same yet swapped around frequently is an effective technique in killing bacteria. Further, it could also be useful in preventing drug resistance.

The findings of this research were published in eLife. 

Researchers suggest that understanding resistance rates and cross-resistance can enhance the potency of sequential antibiotic treatment protocols. 

The results challenge a broad assumption that using similar antibiotics promotes cross-resistance to drugs, and show that available antibiotics could offer unexplored, highly potent treatment options.

“We are currently in an antibiotic crisis, where the overuse of antibiotics is leading to increased antibiotic resistance and certain infections have become difficult and even impossible to treat,” says first author Aditi Batra.

Batra is a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Kiel, Germany. 

“It is the ability of pathogens to evolve and adapt to drugs that underlies this resistance, but evolutionary theory predicts that adaptation is difficult when the environment changes rapidly. We wanted to test if we could use sequential antibiotic treatment to slow down the evolution of human pathogens and limit drug resistance.”

In this research, the investigating team used bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) that can cause pneumonia and other infections in humans. It is further worth noting they tested three different sequences of antibiotics under laboratory conditions. 

Measurements on their potency to kill off different sub-populations of evolved bacterial cells were also made. 

It’s been particularly found that treatment involving both sets of β-lactam antibiotics was better at killing off bacterial populations compared to some of the unrelated antibiotics. 

Experts have long maintained that in order to lessen the rates of antibiotic resistance, it is wise to eliminate the need to use antibiotics. Warding off UTIs is vital in doing this as this type of infection drives the increase in the use of antibiotics.

One of the best ways to ward off UTIs is to use a therapeutic sugar called D-mannose, which is a harmless sugar that can be found in cranberry juice. 

Over the years, researchers have been conducting studies to look into the healing goodness of this remedy. It has been found to work in binding with E.coli and getting rid of this UTI-culprit before it reaches the urinary tract lining to cause an infection. 

It can be obtained today through the use of formulas like Divine Bounty D-mannose (http://www.amazon.com/D-Mannose-600mg-Cranberry-Dandelion-Extract/dp/B01LX5KGF0).