Treating UTI Without Traditional Antibiotics

Researchers have come up with a potential new approach for treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) without traditional antibiotics.

Since it involves non-antibiotic compounds, the approach would not contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or "superbugs".

Based on a report by Beat Ernst and colleagues, the new podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from www.acs.org/globalchallenges.

In the podcast, Ernst explains that antibiotics are the mainstay treatment for 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. n addition, this new class of antimicrobials is expected to have a reduced potential for the emergence of resistant microbes.

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 prevented a UTI from developing in mice for more than eight hours.

In the in vivo treatment study, a very low dose 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 study has been published in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Source: ANI