Caffeine may help bacteria resist antibiotics, study finds
Caffeine can help some bacteria keep antibiotics out of their cells, which could reduce the therapeutic effects of drugs, refers to a new laboratory study.
However, experts warn that it is not yet clear how this effect could take place in humans, so caffeine drinkers do not yet need to panic.
Scientists have known for decades that bacteria can protect oneself By pumping harmful substances through special transport proteins in their external layers – and this capacity helps bacteria to resist the effects of drugs that would otherwise kill them. However, it was not clear how bacteria change the activity of the genes behind these transport proteins in response to the molecules they encounter.
To find out more, the researchers tested how the common intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli – Better known as E. coli – responded to 94 different chemical compounds, including antibiotics and aspirin, as well as products made in the intestine, such as secondary bile acids. They also looked at the small molecules found in common foods, such as vanillin, the compound that gives vanilla its flavor and caffeine.
Their study, published on July 22 in the journal Biology PLOShas shown that many different chemicals can trigger changes in genes related to bacterial transport and therefore potentially affect their response to antibiotics.
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For example, caffeine has proven to reduce the production of a transport protein called OMPF, which helps bring current antibiotics – such as ciprofloxacin and amoxicillin – in membranes or bowels of bacterial cells. In theory, with less of these OMPF proteins available, antibiotics cannot access their targets in cells so easily, which makes them less effective.
But this observation should not yet worry coffee drinkers – there are many potential variables that have not yet been studied, says April HayesA postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter who was not involved in the study. “This would understand if the effect of caffeine would reduce the body’s ability to erase infections,” said Hayes to Live Science.
Andrew EdwardsProfessor of molecular microbiology at Imperial College in London, agreed that “there is no evidence of this study that drinking coffee will affect a person’s response to antibiotics and that no one should change their routine”. Edwards, who was not involved in the study, said that he recommended the following prescribed antibiotics the advice of their doctor and the instructions that come with the medication.
Adaptable microbes
In the study, researchers from the University of Tübingen in Germany examined how seven genes involved in the interior transport E. coli responded to different chemicals. Of the 94 substances they tested, 28 have changed the activity of these genes.
Chemicals that had an effect included caffeine; the paraquat killer of weeds; And certain classes of antibiotics, such as tetracyclines and macrolides. Drugs that block folic acid, which are used to treat certain cancers and inflammatory diseases, and salicylates, a large class of drugs that includes aspirin, have also had an effect.
“This study adds to an increasing appreciation that bacteria can feel and respond to many different stimuli … which can all affect the sensitivity of the microbe to antibiotics,” said Edwards.
A third of the genetic changes induced by chemicals involved the binding protein at the right origin (“Rob”, to be short), which light or deactivate the genes by binding to specific DNA sequences. The results suggest that Rob plays a more important role in the aid E. coli Adapt to its environment that was previously thought.
For the moment, however, we still do not know exactly how caffeine changes the activity of genes into E. coli Or interact with ROB at the molecular level. In addition, researchers do not yet know whether the effects observed in laboratory experiences occur in the same way during real infections in people.
In the study, the researchers found that the capacity of the caffeine to interfere with the functioning of antibiotics was also applied to a strain of E. coli Sampled a real patient with urinary tract infection. This laboratory experience suggests that the effect of caffeine on bacteria could have important implications for human health – but again, this will have to be confirmed in future research.
Future research could also look at microbes beyond E. coli. Researchers suspect that their results can also have implications for how other bacteria modify their carriers over time.
But above all, “at this stage, it always seems very unlikely that caffeine consumption leads to infection difficult to treat,” said Hayes. “Overall, this study is interesting, but it is not a concern for caffeine consumers.”
This article is for information only and is not supposed to offer medical or dietetic advice.
