Some antibiotics are much better at killing microbes in the presence of a compound found in the human body. It could be used to tackle antibiotic resistance.
Work so far has focused on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium found in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis. It is resistant to many antibiotics.
Paul Cohen at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston and his colleagues found that adding lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) increases an antibiotic鈥檚 ability to kill Pseudomonas 100 to 1000-fold. 鈥淵ou can use far less antibiotic, or kill bacteria that are highly resistant,鈥� he says.
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LPA is released during inflammation, but the quantities normally produced are too low to aid antibiotic therapy. Cohen has patented the use of LPA as an antibiotic enhancer.
The team now plans to test whether LPA can help kill Pseudomonas in mice with a condition similar to cystic fibrosis.