Antibiotic resistance is making some bacterial infections much harder to treat.
It happens when bacteria change in ways that allow them to survive medicines that once killed them.
As resistance spreads, ordinary infections can become more dangerous and doctors may be left with fewer treatment choices.
One major concern is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA. This bacterium can cause skin and wound infections, pneumonia, and serious infections of the blood. It is especially concerning because it resists several commonly used antibiotics.
Scientists are searching for new antibiotics, but developing a completely new medicine can take many years and cost a great deal of money.
Another approach is to examine medicines that are already used for other diseases. Sometimes an existing drug turns out to have an unexpected effect that could be useful for treating a different condition.
A new study published in Nature Communications explored one such possibility. Researchers led by Dr. Eleftherios Mylonakis investigated candesartan cilexetil, a medicine normally associated with the treatment of high blood pressure. Their experiments found that the drug also showed activity against MRSA.
Candesartan cilexetil is normally used because, after being converted to its active form in the body, it helps relax blood vessels and lower blood pressure. The researchers were interested in a very different property of the drug. They found evidence that it can interfere with the protective membrane surrounding bacterial cells.
A bacterial membrane is essential for survival. It helps control what enters and leaves the cell and supports many of the processes bacteria need to stay alive. When the researchers exposed MRSA to candesartan cilexetil in laboratory experiments, the bacterial membrane was disrupted and the cells became damaged.
The effect was seen during different stages of bacterial growth. This is potentially important because bacteria that are growing slowly or have entered a resting state can sometimes be difficult for conventional antibiotics to kill. A treatment that remains active under different conditions could therefore have advantages.
The researchers also examined biofilms. These are organized communities of bacteria that attach to surfaces and surround themselves with a protective material. Biofilms can develop on wounds and medical devices and can make bacteria much more difficult for antibiotics and the immune system to remove.
Candesartan cilexetil reduced MRSA biofilm formation in the experiments. This suggests that the drug might have more than one useful effect against the bacterium. By damaging bacterial membranes and interfering with biofilms, it could potentially make resistant infections easier to control.
However, the discovery does not mean people with MRSA should take blood pressure medicine to treat the infection. The research is still at an early stage, and laboratory results cannot show whether candesartan cilexetil would be safe or effective as an antibacterial treatment in people. The amount needed to kill bacteria may also be very different from the dose safely used for blood pressure.
Researchers will need to determine whether useful concentrations of the drug can reach an infection inside the human body without causing harmful effects. They must also study different MRSA strains, possible drug combinations, and whether bacteria could eventually develop resistance to this approach. Animal studies and, if justified, human clinical trials would be needed before it could become a treatment.
Still, repurposing an existing medicine has potential advantages. Scientists already know a great deal about how candesartan-related treatments behave in people, although using the drug against infection would be a completely different purpose. This existing knowledge could help researchers investigate the new possibility more efficiently.
The Nature Communications study highlights how unexpected solutions may emerge from medicines that are already familiar.
As antibiotic resistance continues to threaten modern health care, finding new ways to weaken dangerous bacteria is becoming increasingly important. An ordinary blood pressure drug may now offer researchers another lead in the search for better weapons against MRSA.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more health information, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
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