Carbon monoxide can improve the effectiveness of antibiotics, making bacteria more sensitive to antibiotic medication, according to a study led by Georgia State University.
Carbon monoxide can improve the effectiveness of antibiotics, making bacteria more sensitive to antibiotic medication, according to a study led by Georgia State University.
Researchers paired carbon monoxide with the antibiotic metronidazole and found carbon monoxide enhanced the efficacy of the antibiotic against H. pylori, a type of bacteria that infects the stomach and causes peptic ulcers. The findings are published in the journal Organic Letters.
“We found that if you administer carbon monoxide together with an antibiotic called metronidazole, it can sensitize bacteria toward the same antibiotic by 25-fold,” said Dr. Binghe Wang, Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and director of the Center for Diagnostics & Therapeutics at Georgia State and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery. “It makes the bacteria much, much more sensitive to the antibiotic.
“We always hear about the discussions of drug resistance. When we have drug resistance, it’s not because these bacteria will not respond to antibiotics anymore. Most of the time, it means there is decreased sensitivity. If you can resensitize bacteria or sensitize them, then that would allow you to either use a smaller amount of antibiotic or use the same amount that would kill many, many more bacteria.”
Read more at Georgia State University
Image: Dr. Binghe Wang, Regents' Professor of Chemistry and director of the Center for Diagnostics & Therapeutics at Georgia State University and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery. (Credit: Georgia State University)
