Lyme disease treated with antibiotic that does not damage intestinal microbiome

An antibiotic often used to treat pneumonia in MICIE from Lyme, Disiase in a dose 100 times lower than the standard antibiotic therapy. This smaller dose, combined with the drug’s targeted action against the infection, meant that the intestinal microbiomas of the animals were far unaffected.

Lyme disease is caused by bacteria in the genus Borrelia It spreads mainly among birds and small rodents, but people can be infected via bites of ticks that have fed the blood from such animals. Infections often lead to flu-like symptoms and a “bull-eye” rash. If untreated, they can cause long -term complications, such as fatigue and tenderness.

Standard treatment involves taking a high dose of the antibiotic doxycycline twice daily for up to three weeks. This prevents bacteria from producing the proteins they need to survive, but it is not selectively targeting Borrelia Species. “It creates chaos on the normal [gut] Microbiome, ”says Brandon Jutras at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Looking for a more selective alternative, Jutras and his colleagues tested first, how effectively more than 450 antibiotics, all approved by the American food and drug administration, CLD Kill Kill Kill Borrelia Burgdorferi -The most common type of Lyme disease-causing bacteria-in a lab bowl.

They are assembled how the best possible drugs affected the growth of harmless or beneficial bacteria often found in the gut of humans and microphone, such as certain stems of Escherichia coli. This revealed that piperacillin, an antibiotic related to penicillin and is often used to treat pneumonia, most selectively targeted B. Burgdorferi.

Next, the researchers injected 46 mice with B. Burgdorferi. Three weeks later, they treated the animals with different doses of either doxycycline or piperacillin twice a day for a weekend. The researchers found no evidence of infection in Miche that received neither a high dose of doxycycline nor as little as a 100 times lower dose of piperacillin.

They also analyzed stools from Miche before and after the antibiotic therapy and found that the low -dose piperacillin had almost no influence on the levels of bacteria other than B. Burgdorferi In the gut, whereas doxycycycline-heavy with high dose, the intestinal microbioma changed.

This is probably due to the fact that a low dose of antibiotic has less influence on intestinal microbial diversity and due to piperacillin’s targeted action. “With piperacillin we found that it is targeted at a particular protein that is important for B. BurgdorferiBut not other bacteria, to survive, so it is remarkable to kill this Lyme disease agent at low concentrations, “says Jutras. This can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome that has been linked to a long, disease-free life.

But mice can respond differently to antibiotics than people do, says John Aucott at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. For example, they often break down drugs faster, which can change their efficiency. Jutras’ team hopes to test piperacillin in human Lyme disease attempts within the next few years.