New research from the Universities of Tübingen and Würzburg, led by Professor Ana Rita Brochado, reveals that ingredients in our daily diet — including caffeine — can affect how bacteria respond to antibiotics.
Published in the journal PLOS Biology, this study offers new insights into ‘low-level’ antibiotic resistance driven not by genetic mutations but by environmental adaptations.
The researchers conducted a systematic screening of 94 substances, including antibiotics, prescription drugs, and food ingredients, to determine their influence on gene regulators and transport proteins in Escherichia coli (E. coli).
These transport proteins, acting as cellular pores and pumps, are crucial for managing the internal chemical balance of bacteria.
The team found that caffeine triggers a gene regulatory cascade in E. coli beginning with the regulator Rob, which leads to changes in transport proteins. This cascade results in reduced uptake of ciprofloxacin, a common antibiotic, thereby diminishing its effectiveness. This phenomenon is termed an ‘antagonistic interaction.’
Interestingly, this caffeine-triggered resistance was not observed in Salmonella enterica, a close relative of E. coli. This suggests that even among similar bacterial species, responses to environmental stimuli may differ, possibly due to variations in transport systems.
This study contributes to our understanding of how non-antimicrobial dietary substances can impact antibiotic resistance. It highlights the importance of considering environmental and dietary factors in antibiotic treatment strategies. Future therapies may need to account for such interactions to avoid reducing antibiotic efficacy.
President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. (Dōshisha) Karla Pollmann emphasized the importance of such fundamental research, noting its potential to address real-world health challenges by better understanding the complex relationships between diet, environment, and bacterial behavior.
The study is published in PLOS Biology.
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