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Antibiotics are the mainstay treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs). Bacteria, however, are developing resistance to common antibiotics, with the emergence of "superbugs" that shrug off some of the most powerful new
antibiotics.
Thus, the scientists decided to try a new approach — developing substances that target bacteria virulence factors, inhibiting them from sticking to the inside of the urinary bladder.
Hence, microbes are not able to launch an infection and, furthermore, this new class of antimicrobials is expected to exhibit less selection pressure and, therefore, a reduced potential for the emergence of
resistance.
The scientists describe the development of anti-adhesion molecules that specifically interfere with the attachment of bacteria to human bladder cells. The most potent of the substances, an indolinylphenyl mannoside, prevented a UTI from developing in mice (stand-ins for humans in this kind of experiment) for more than eight hours. In the in vivo treatment study, a very low dose of 25 µg per mouse reduced the amount of bacteria in the bladder of the animals by almost 10,000 times, which is comparable to the standard antibiotic treatment with
ciprofloxacin.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Swiss National Science
Foundation.
For more infromations
American Chemical Society
(MDN)
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