Over 75% of all urinary tract infections (UTIs) are caused by E. Coli. Antibiotics work by killing the bacteria however a growing societal problem is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance occurs when the bacteria no longer reacts to the antibiotics (not ideal!). Unfortunately, on average 25% of women are resistant to antibiotics due to over-prescription for UTIs.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom wanted to test how quickly bacteria builds this resistance. The scientists exposed E. coli bacteria to eight rounds of antibiotic treatment. They found that the mutated E. Coli actually reproduced faster than before being exposed to the antibiotics and formed populations 300% larger due to the exposure.
“Bacteria have a remarkable ability to rearrange their DNA and this can stop drugs working, sometimes in a matter of days,” said Beardmore.
At CRANEL we are focused on natural prevention methods, so when antibiotics are necessary they can retain their effectiveness.
Research conducted at McGill University and INRS has found that a cranberry makes bacteria more sensitive to antibiotics, a promising avenue for limiting resistance to these important drugs.
“Normally when we treat bacteria with an antibiotic in the lab, the bacteria eventually acquire resistance over time," said McGill chemical engineering professor Nathalie Tufenkji, lead author of the study. “But when we simultaneously treated the bacteria with an antibiotic and the cranberry extract, no resistance developed. We were very surprised by this, and we see it as an important opportunity.”
Cranberry works by deactivating bacteria and it is then flushed out. This early research may also prove that cranberry helps antibiotics fight bacteria without developing resistance. One shot of CRANEL is packed with 3,000 cranberries and is equivalent to 10 cranberry tablets.
Sources:
"The unconstrained evolution of fast and efficient antibiotic-resistant bacterial genomes.", Nature Ecology & Evolution
“Proanthocyanidin Interferes with Intrinsic Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms of Gram-Negative Bacteria” (Adv. Sci. 2019, 1802333. DOI: 10.1002/advs.201802333) reports on the work conducted Vimal B. Maisuria, Mira Okshevsky, Éric Déziel, and Nathalie Tufenkji. It was published in Advanced Science, a peer-reviewed open access journal.
