Lyme disease treated with antibiotic that doesn’t harm gut microbiome

An antibiotic that is commonly used to treat Lyme disease mice at a dose at a dose 100 times lower than standard antibiotic therapy. This smaller dose, combined with the directed action of the infection drug, meant that the intestinal microbiomes of the animals were not largely affected.

Lyme’s disease is caused by gender bacteria Borrelia That spread mainly between birds and small rodents, but people can infect through tick bites that have fed from the blood of such animals. Infections commonly lead to symptoms similar to flu and an eruption of “bull eye”. If they are not treated, they can cause serious long -term complications, such as fatigue and pain.

Standard treatment involves taking a high dose of antibiotic doxycycline twice a day for up to three weeks. This prevents bacteria from doing the proteins they need to survive, but it is not selectively directed Borrelia species. “Normal ravages are placed [gut] Microbiome, “says Brandon Juras at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Looking for a more selective alternative, Juras and their colleagues proved for the first time how effectively more than 450 antibiotics, all approved by the United States Drug and Food Administration, could kill. Borrelia Burgdorferi -The most common type of Lyme disease causes bacteria in a laboratory dish.

Then they evaluated how high performance medications affected the growth of harmless or beneficial bacteria that are commonly found in the entrails of people and mice, such as certain efforts of Escherichia coli. This revealed that piperacilin, an antibiotic that is a relationship with penicillin and is commonly used to treat pneumonia, more selectively directed B. Burgdorferi.

Next, the researchers inject 46 mice with B. Burgdorferi. Three weeks later, they treated animals with different doses of doxycycline or piperacillin twice a day for a week. The researchers did not find signs of infection in the mice that received a high dose of doxycycline or just a dose 100 times smaller or piperacilin.

They also analyzed the mice feces before and after antibiotic treatment and found that low dose piperacillin almost had no effect on bacteria levels that are nothing more than more than more than more than B. Burgdorferi In the intestine, while high dose doxycycline strongly altered the intestinal microbiome.

This is probably due to the fact that a lower or antibiotic dose has less or an effect on intestinal microbial diversity, and because either the directed action of piperacilin. “With piperacillin, we discover that it is directed to a particular protein that is essential for B. BurgdorferiBut not other bacteria, to survive, so it is remarkable efficient to kill this Lyme disease agent at low concentrations, “says Juras. This can help preserve a healthy intestinal microbiome, which has left a long -and -free disease.

But mice can respond differently to antibiotics than people, says John Aucott at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. For example, drugs often break down faster, which can alter its effectiveness. The juicy team hopes to prove the piperacilin in the human Lyme disease tests in the coming years.