Saccharin, the New Antibiotic

[gleem]

Remember the artificial sweetener that was almost taken off the market because it caused bladder cancer in mice? But only in mice so we still have it. It has been discovered that it has antimicrobial properties, especially for some antibiotic-resistant microbes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...n&cvid=ccf1938beeb648dcb6a0f847b5fcfff7&ei=18

"In exciting work led by our team, we've identified a novel antimicrobial—saccharin," Prof McCarthy said. "Saccharin breaks the walls of bacterial pathogens, causing them to distort and eventually burst, killing the bacteria. Crucially, this damage lets antibiotics slip inside, overwhelming their resistance systems."

 

[Cepacia]

Look forward to clinical testing.
Saccharine is a synthetic compound - not an "antibiotic" per se.
Lots of materials are effective in vitro and the ex vivo test was a bit limited - UV "sterilization" of pork skin, easy assumption of biofilm and saccharine legs of their hydrogel was only about one leg from the no saccharine control and biofilm complication not addressed.

 

[Laroxe]

I have to say that this left me thinking of a blunderbuss approach to testing while missing the most important details. I have to agree with Cepacia, a huge number of things can be shown to impact on bacterial growth and survival and one of the most important variables to consider is the concentration needed. I still dont know if we can get a sufficient level in the blood to have an impact, I sort of get the impression that they are talking about some sort of local antiseptic action. The next problem is in the mechanisms of action, which appear to be everything, it is described as something which facilitates the actions of other antibiotics, as preventing mitosis, as inhibiting a large number of gene expressions and causing cell lysis. There are so many claims about various actions in various situations, mixed with vague comments about effects on the microbiome but very little to make it interesting clinically, there is just too much none specific detail. The article claims there is little ongoing work on the control of biofilms, I would disagree and to be honest there is already a large number of antimicrobial dressings available.