Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Strengthens Our Last Line of Defense Against Superbugs

(Photo : Charles Thompson )
A drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis can be reassigned as treatment against superbugs

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong found that an existing rheumatoid arthritis medication can be reassigned to be used as a canceller of bacteria's resistance to antibiotics.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showed a report stating that more than 2.8 million antibiotic resilient infections occur in the United States yearly, and about 35 thousand people perish because of the contamination. According to Rx List, antibiotics are frequently prescribed, but because of the widespread use, the bacteria targeted by the medication have adapted to it, making the drug less effective. Mayo Clinic added that drug resistance is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be slowed but not stopped. They added that this makes the traditional or standard treatments for some infections less effective and sometimes useless.

The research team found that a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis called auranofin can restore the bacteria-killing effect of two last-resort antibiotics losing its effectiveness. Conferring to the study, auranofin is an FDA permitted drug used since the 1980s, is having potent bactericidal activity against gram-positive pathogenic bacteria.

Losing Effectivity

According to National Centers for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), carbapenem resistance among gram-positive pathogens is a global public health issue, especially when mediated by transferrable carbapenemase-encoding genes, is spreading rapidly, resulting in serious outbreaks and dramatically limiting treatment options. It is known that carbapenems are a class of antibiotics that are used to treat infections that are resistant to everything. On the other hand, Colistin, a drug that is considered the last resort in treating bacterial infection due to the side effects it carries.

Findings

In the study, the anti-rheumatic drug shows collaboration with the antibiotics on killing a broad spectrum of carbapenem and colistin-resistant bacterial strain in the model's liver and spleen than using antibiotics alone slows down the development of the bacteria's resistance. Using a model of mice infected with E. coli, their findings provide that potential strategy and combine auranofin with antibiotics for combating superbugs.

According to Science Daily, the study's finding provides insights into the development of inorganic pharmaceutics or medication for superbug infections. The study's researchers added that much more work is needed to be done, such as conducting tests in humans, even though the results are very much intriguing. They furthered that this kind of treatment will make way for reinforcing the last line of defense against superbugs, giving experts more time to develop brand new antibiotics or other medications that will control the bacteria.

What Are Superbugs?

According to Mayo Clinic, superbugs are strains of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi resistant to most of the antibiotics and other medications usually used to treat infections in the body. Healthline added that some people infected with superbugs do not show any symptoms, which makes them dangerous to vulnerable people and infect them unconsciously. Some examples of these superbugs are bacteria that can cause pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI) and skin infections.

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