Posted by 
The effectiveness of antibiotics can be altered by combining them with each other, non-antibiotic drugs and food additives. Depending on the bacterial species, some combinations stop antibiotics from working to their full potential whilst others defeat antibiotic resistance.
Scientists profiled about 3000 drug combinations on three different disease-causing bacteria. The research was led by EMBL group leader Nassos Typas. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics has led to widespread antibiotic resistance. Specific combinations of drugs can help in fighting multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.
Many of the investigated drug combinations lessened the antibiotics’ effect, there were over 500 drug combinations which improved antibiotic outcome. A selection of these positive pairings was also tested in multi-drug resistant bacteria, isolated from infected hospital patients, and were found to improve antibiotic effects.
When vanillin – the compound that gives vanilla its distinctive taste – was paired with one particular antibiotic- spectinomycin, it helped the antibiotic to enter bacterial cells and inhibit their growth. Spectinomycin was originally developed in the early-1960s for treating gonorrhoea but is rarely used due to the bacterial resistance.
However, in combination with vanillin it could become relevant and used for other disease-causing microbes. “Of the combinations tested, this was one of the most effective and promising synergies we identified,” says Ana Rita Brochado, first author on the paper and research scientist at EMBL. Pairings such as this could prevents antibiotic resistance.
However, vanillin lessened the effect of many other types of antibiotics. Vanillin works in a similar way to aspirin to decrease the activity of many antibiotics. Antibiotics can lead to collateral damage and side effects because they target healthy bacteria as well. But the effects of these drug combinations are highly selective, and often only affect a few bacterial species.
haleplushearty.org