Commonly used pain relievers have added benefit of fighting bacterial infection
It seems that some NSAID’s, which
are common drugs, used for aches, pains, fever, and inflammation in joints seem
to have the ability to kill bacteria from drug resistant infections as well as
superbugs. This discovery is extremely important, this means that NSAID’s can
be used to attack and kill superbugs that have become resistant to many or most
of the antibiotics on the market. DR. Oakley said that these bacteria killing
anti-inflammatory drugs can be developed to create a whole new line of
antibiotics against these superbugs. The researchers on this case analyzed
three different NSAID’s; bromofenac, carpofen, and vedaprogen the more common
NSAID’s such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen were not tested. They
discovered that these drugs bind and inhibit a protein in bacteria called the
DNA clamp. The DNA clamp is part of an enzyme that allows the bacterial species
to multiply, by stopping this it kills the bacteria and not allowing it to
grow.
This is
wonderful news for the world of medicine as well as for those who have drug
resistant infections or have superbugs. To think that those with these
infections will finally have a way to kill these bugs and go back to being a
healthy happy individual. I, for one, am super excited for when they develop
these NSAID’s into a new line of antibiotics. It means that we are finding more
cures for illness’s that are in basic medicine that has been around for a while.
It makes me wonder if other commonly used medication can be studied to see if
they are helpful in the treatment of other illnesses.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140313123127.htm
This article really surprised me. How is it that they have only recently begun to discover that these common NSAID’s actually have the ability to kill bacteria and also these superbugs? It surprised me that these common NSAID’s have existed this whole time but yet we barely discovered that they could kill bacteria. This discover seems to have come at the right time, because a lot of viruses and bacteria are becoming drug resistant and our current antibiotics and antivirals are no longer able to kill them. There is a question that this discovery makes me raise. If in the past bacteria have become resistant to current antibiotics than what if they are also able to become resistant to the NSAID’s too. If this were somehow able to happen then it would be very dangerous, because there would no longer be any effective treatments for bacterial infections and diseases, and what if this discovery ends up causing more harm than good.
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