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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, after all, can be overcome by a combination of antibiotics, or (surprise!) Of these with other compounds, like common vanillin, the substance of the drug. Vanilla aroma.
has opened a new avenue for future treatments against pathogens that have become resistant or multi-resistant to available antibiotics – a trend that the World Health Organization (WHO) has already considered "alarming".
The study, conducted by a team of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), in Heidelberg, Germany, is one of the most widely used, and published today in the journal
Nature
was the first of its kind to systematically test the effect of three thousand pairs of possible combinations out of a total of 80 molecules. Of this group, about 70% were antibiotics, and the rest were other non-antibiotic drugs, such as aspirin or imodium, as well as dietary supplements such as vanillin or turmeric. .
The effects of each of the three thousand pairs of molecules were tested on three distinct bacteria: Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli that cause gastrointestinal infections, for example, and at Pseudomonas aeruginosa which is lodged in the lungs and, in immunocompromised patients, can cause serious infections. "Of the three thousand combinations we tested, 7% exceeded our expectations," says Ana Rita Brochado, explaining that in these cases "antibiotics have been more aggressive and effective against bacteria than they are" .
was administered alone. "
The revelatory molecule, so to speak, has proven to be vanillin – the one that tastes vanilla.In itself, this molecule does not kill bacteria, of course, but when it is Associated with spectinomycin (an antibiotic), vanillin has been shown to be a powerful and unexpected aid, which has allowed the antibiotic to easily penetrate and neutralize bacteria.
Another winning pair is the two antibiotics erythromycin and colistin.Why? Because in the case of colistin-resistant bacteria, which is very potent, and only used in special cases, when many other antibiotics no longer work, its pairing with the 39, Erythromycin has allowed it to be effective again.The results were so obvious that the team decided to also apply the combination of vanillin and spectinomycin – as well as six others, as well as ################################################################################## 39, a combination of vanillin and spectinomycin, of those that were found to be more effective – in multidrug-resistant strains of the same three species of bacteria, to check if the effect was the same.
"And that was," says Ana Rita Brochado, explaining that this new knowledge now opens the doors to pre-clinical studies, to test the effectiveness and safety of these combinations of compounds. "Our studies are in the laboratory, now we have to test that, first on mice and then go to the next steps, and do clinical studies, before they can be used in medicine," notes the researcher , pointing out that his group already delimits some studies on animal models
"There are still several steps to to follow, and we will not have a medical application for three years or five years, but despite everything, we gain a lot of time in the development of new molecules, since all the ones we tested are already approved. for human use. "
EMBL researcher since 2012, where specifically worked in this area of the combination of antibiotics and its effect on bacteria, Ana Rita Brochado is the principal investigator of the team who did this study, which also counted on the participation of Andre Mateus, the other Portuguese group.
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