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全球研究人員都在努力尋找解決超級細菌危機的方法。現在,科學家們發現了使用薑黃來挫敗一種常見抗藥性細菌的有趣方法。
細菌對抗生素的耐藥性對我們的健康構成重大威脅。全球約有24-79%的人口感染了幽門螺桿菌(H. pylori)。
像其他細菌一樣,幽門螺桿菌對使用抗生素的傳統治療方法的抵抗力越來越強。
實際上,根據世界衛生組織(WHO)的說法,耐藥細菌是全球健康的最大威脅之一。一些專家預測,到2050年,除非科學家能找到應對這種威脅的方法,否則因此死亡的人數將比癌症多。
薑黃包含有助於對抗超級細菌的化合物。咖喱的主要成分就是薑黃。
但是,來自英國和德國的科學家可能已經找到了無需使用抗生素即可停止幽門螺桿菌感染的創新方法(ID:chinameditour)。取而代之的是,他們使用填充了天然成分(特別是薑黃素)的微小膠囊來阻止感染。薑黃素是薑黃的一種成分,研究表明具有抗炎和抗氧化的功效。
「幽門螺桿菌是一種全球傳播的病原體。據估計,全世界有70%的人攜帶這種病原體,」英國利茲食品科學與營養學院的Francisco Goycoolea教授說,他是該團隊最近在《ACS應用生物材料》雜誌上發表的論文的合著者。
Goycoolea補充說,科學家需要找到「應對微生物耐藥性的創新整體方法」,並且必須設法找到抗生素的新替代品。
他認為,「這種由天然成分製成的小膠囊組成的新穎配方,可以提供一種新手段來阻止全球傳播的'超級細菌'病原體。」
在2017年,世衛組織將耐藥幽門螺桿菌列為對全球健康構成最大威脅的耐藥細菌名單中的一個高度優先病原體。
產生抗藥性是因為細菌發生變化和適應,這意味著抗生素無法再治癒細菌感染。儘管抗藥性的確是自然發生的,但舉例來說,不恰當地使用抗生素治療感冒加劇了這種情況。
目前,醫生用抗生素混合物治療超級細菌,這種混合物只起到鼓勵耐藥菌株的作用。
天然成分有助於對抗超級細菌
估計表明全球有44億人攜帶幽門螺桿菌。儘管它可能導致潰瘍,胃壁發炎和增加患胃癌的風險,但它並不總是顯示症狀。醫生發現幽門螺桿菌很難治療。
Goycoolea說:「細菌藏在胃黏膜層下,抗生素無法有效滲透。這通常會導致反覆感染,並產生耐藥菌株。」
現在,位於英國利茲大學,德國明斯特大學和埃爾蘭根大學的研究小組發現,數十億微小的含有薑黃素的納米膠囊可以阻止細菌粘附到胃細胞上。反過來,這可以幫助抗生素髮揮作用。
這種新穎的解決方案使用無毒食品和藥品級成分。科學家們在納米膠囊上塗上溶菌酶,這有助於對抗細菌感染。科學家們還使用了少量的右旋糖酐硫酸鹽,用它來抑制幽門螺桿菌感染。
Goycoolea說:「由天然成分製成的小膠囊可以提供一種阻止全球傳播的'超級細菌'病原體的新手段。」
科學家利用胃細胞和細菌在體外進行了研究。
該論文的共同作者,明斯特大學藥物生物學和植物化學研究所的安德烈亞斯·亨塞爾(Andreas Hensel)教授說:「新一代的抗菌藥物可能是以細菌的更特異的分子靶點為基礎的,作用範圍可能不如舊的化合物廣泛,但因此對特定細菌的特定毒力因子的作用更為精確。」
「發表在《ACS應用生物材料》上的研究可能會為針對幽門螺桿菌及其特異性粘附和毒力因子的受控藥物靶向指明新途徑。」
——Andreas Hensel教授
研究小組希望科學家們將使用納米膠囊來幫助消除幽門螺桿菌並減少抗生素耐藥株。他們已根據此配方申請了專利。
Could turmeric help solve the antibiotic resistance crisis?
Researchers around the globe are scrambling to find ways to tackle the superbug crisis. Now, scientists have found an interesting way to foil a common antibiotic resistant bacteria, using turmeric.
Resistance to antibiotics poses a significant threat to our health. Around 24–79% of the world's population is infected with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori).
Like other bacteria, H. pylori has grown ever more resistant to traditional treatment using antibiotics.
Indeed, drug resistant bacteria are one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some experts predict that it will cause more deaths than cancer by 2050 unless scientists can find some way to counter the threat.
However, scientists from the United Kingdom and Germany may have found an innovative way of stopping H. pylori infection without using antibiotics. Instead, they used minuscule capsules filled with natural ingredients, notably curcumin, to stop the infection. Some studies have suggested that curcumin, which is an ingredient in turmeric, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities.
"[H. pylori] is a globally-spread pathogen. It is estimated that up to 70% of people host this pathogen worldwide," says professor Francisco Goycoolea of the School of Food Science and Nutrition in Leeds in the UK, and co-author of the paper that the team recently published in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials.
Goycoolea adds that scientists need to find 'new integral approaches [...] to tackle antimicrobial resistance," and must try to find new alternatives to antibiotics.
He believes that "this novel formulation, consisting of small capsules made of natural ingredients, could offer a new means to deter a globally-spread 'superbug' pathogen."
In 2017, the WHO included antibiotic resistant H. pylori strains as a high priority pathogen on their list of drug resistant bacteria that present the biggest threat to global health.
Resistance occurs because bacteria change and adapt, meaning that antibiotics can no longer cure bacterial infections. Although resistance does happen naturally, the inappropriate use of antibiotics to cure colds, for example, has exacerbated the situation.
At the moment, doctors treat superbugs with a cocktail of antibiotics, which has only served to encourage resistant strains.
Natural ingredients help fight the superbug
Estimates suggest that 4.4 billion people globally carry H. pylori. It does not always show symptoms, although it can result in ulcers, inflammation of the lining of the stomach, and an increased risk of stomach cancer. Doctors find H. pylori very challenging to treat.
"The bacteria hide under the gastric mucous layer where antibiotics do not penetrate effectively. This often leads to recurrent infections and gives rise to resistant strains," says Goycoolea.
Now the research team, based at the universities of Leeds in the UK, and Münster and Erlangen in Germany, has discovered that billions of minute nanocapsules loaded with curcumin and used in the right dose, can stop the bacteria from sticking to stomach cells. This in turn, could helps antibiotics do their jobs.
This novel solution uses nontoxic food and pharmaceutical grade ingredients. The scientists coated the nanocapsules with the enzyme lysozyme, which helps to fight bacterial infections. The scientists also used a small amount of dextran sulfate, which scientists have used to suppress H. pylori infection.
"Small capsules made of natural ingredients could offer a new means to deter a globally-spread 'superbug' pathogen," says Goycoolea.
The scientists carried out the research in vitro, using stomach cells and the bacteria.
"A new generation of antibacterials might be based on more specific molecular targets of the bacteria, acting probably not as broad as the older compounds, but therefore more precisely against specific virulence factors of specific bacteria," says co-author professor Andreas Hensel of the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry at the University of Münster.
"The research published in ACS Applied Bio Materials might pinpoint a new way towards controlled drug targeting against H. pylori and its specific adhesion and virulence factors."
Prof. Andreas Hensel
The research team hopes that scientists will use the nanocapsules to help eliminate H. pylori and reduce antibiotic resistant strains. They have