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

An antibiotic is usually used to treat mice to get rid of pneumonia Lyme disease With a 100 -time dose less than standard antibiotic treatment. This smaller dose, along with the targeted action of the drug against infection, means that the intestinal microbes of animals were not largely affected.

Lyme disease is the result of bacteria in sex Borrelia This is mainly spreading between birds and small rodents, but people can injury through tick bites that feed the blood of these animals. Inflammation It usually leads to influenza -like symptoms and a “eye bull” rash. If not treated, it can cause serious long -term complications, such as fatigue and pain.

Standard treatment includes taking a high dose of antibiotic doxycycline twice daily for up to three weeks. This prevents bacteria from making the proteins they need to survive, but it does not target selectively Borrelia Class. “It spoils naturally [gut] Microbum, “says Brandon Cutra At the University of North Western in Illinois.

Looking for a more selective alternative, Kutra and his colleagues first tested the effectiveness of 450 AntibioticsAll the American Food and Drug Administration agreed to, it can be killed Borillia Burgdorphi The most common type of pathogenic bacteria-in the laboratory dish.

Then they evaluated how to perform higher Drugs It affected the growth of harmful or useful bacteria that usually found in the courage of people and mice, such as some strains Escherichia coli. This revealed that PIPERACillin, an antibiotic associated with penicillin and is usually used to treat pneumonia, is targeted selectively selectively. B. Burgdorferi.

After that, the researchers injected 46 mice with B. Burgdorferi. Three weeks later, deal with animals with varying doses of doxycycline or pyberin twice a day for one week. Researchers have found no signs of infection in mice that received a high dose of doxycycline or less than a dose less than 100 times than bydracene.

They also analyzed stool from mice before and after treatment with antibiotics and found that the low dose had no effect on bacteria levels otherwise B. Burgdorferi In the intestine, while doxycycline a high dose changed the intestine Microbium.

Perhaps this is because a less dose of antibiotics has a lower effect on the microbial diversity of the intestine, and because of the targeted Piperacillin action. “With PIPERACillin, we found it targeting a specific protein. B. Burgdorferi“It is not the other bacteria, to survive, so they are significantly effective in killing a Lyme disease factor with low concentrations,” says Guqra. Long life -free life.

But mice can respond differently to antibiotics from people, he says John Okot At Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. For example, they often break the medications faster, which may change their effectiveness. The Jutras team hopes for the PIPERACillIn test in the experiences of Human illness over the next few years.