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esearchers around the globe are
scrambling to find ways to tackle the superbug crisis. Now, scientists have
found an interesting way to foil a common antibiotic resistant bacteria, using
turmeric.
Turmeric may contain a compound that could be helpful in the fight against superbugs.
Superbugs
are very difficult to kill. The most common of these bacteria is Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori),
which infects 24-79% of the world's population at any given time.
Like
other superbugs, H. pylori has
grown ever more resistant to traditional cures using antibiotics.
Indeed,
drug resistant bacteria are one of the biggest threats to global health,
according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some experts predict that it
will cause more deaths than cancer by 2050 unless scientists can find
some way to counter it, and soon.
However,
scientists from the United Kingdom and Germany may have found an innovative way
of treating H. pylori without
using antibiotics. Instead, they used minuscule capsules filled with natural
ingredients, notably curcumin, to help antibiotics do their work more
effectively. Curcumin, which is an ingredient in turmeric, has
anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor qualities.
"[H. pylori] is a globally-spread
pathogen. It is estimated that up to 70% of people host this pathogen
worldwide," says professor Francisco Goycoolea of the School of Food
Science and Nutrition in Leeds in the UK, and co-author of the paper that the
team recently published in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials.
Goycoolea
adds that scientists need to find 'new integral approaches [...] to tackle
antimicrobial resistance," and must try to find new alternatives to
antibiotics.
He
believes that "this novel formulation, consisting of small capsules made
of natural ingredients, could offer a new means to deter a globally-spread
'superbug' pathogen.".
In 2017, the WHO included H. pylori as a high priority pathogen on their list of drug resistant
bacteria that present the biggest threat to global health — the superbugs that
need the most immediate solutions.
Resistance
occurs because bacteria change and adapt, meaning that antibiotics can no longer
cure bacterial infections. Although resistance does happen naturally, the
inappropriate use of antibiotics to cure colds, for example, has exacerbated
the situation.
At
the moment, doctors treat superbugs with a cocktail of antibiotics, which has
only served to encourage resistant strains,
Natural ingredients help fight the superbug
Estimates
suggest that 4.4 billion people globally carry H. pylori. It does not always show symptoms, although it can
result in ulcers, inflammation of the
lining of the stomach, and an increased risk of stomach cancer. Doctors
find H. pylori very
challenging to treat.
"The bacteria hide under the gastric mucous
layer where antibiotics do not penetrate effectively. This often leads to
recurrent infections and gives rise to resistant strains," says Goycoolea.
Now
the research team, based at the universities of Leeds in the UK, and Münster
and Erlangen in Germany, has discovered that billions of minute nanocapsules
loaded with curcumin and used in the right dose, can stop the bacteria from
sticking to stomach cells. This is turn, helps antibiotics do their jobs.
This
novel solution uses nontoxic food and pharmaceutical-grade ingredients. The
scientists coated the nanocapsules with the enzyme lysozyme, which helps to
fight bacterial infections. The scientists also used a small amount dextran
sulfate "that binds receptors in the bacteria and in the mucosal layer
that coats the stomach."
"Small
capsules made of natural ingredients could offer a new means to deter a
globally-spread 'superbug' pathogen," says Goycoolea.
The
scientists carried out the research in vitro, or outside the human body, using
stomach cells and the bacteria.
"A
new generation of antibacterials might be based on more specific molecular
targets of the bacteria, acting probably not as broad as the older compounds,
but therefore more precisely against specific virulence factors of specific
bacteria," says co-author professor Andreas Hensel of the Institute for
Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry at the University of Münster.
"The research published in ACS
Applied Bio Materials might pinpoint a new way towards controlled drug
targeting against H. pylori and its specific adhesion and virulence
factors."
Prof.
Andreas Hensel
The
research team hopes that scientists will use the nanocapsules to help
eliminate H. pylori and
reduce superbug strains. They have filed a patent of the formulation.
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