Can We Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria With Non-Antibiotic Drugs? (economist.com)

Slashdot reader Bruce66423 shares what researchers learned by studying the effect of drugs on bacteria in the gut: The research reveals that it's not just antibiotics that have the effect of causing resistance to antibiotics. "Of the drugs in the study, 156 were antibacterials (144 antibiotics and 12 antiseptics). But a further 835, such as painkillers and blood-pressure pills, were not intended to harm bacteria. Yet almost a quarter (203) did....

"However, Dr Maier's study also brings some good news for the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Some strains she looked at which were resistant to antibiotics nevertheless succumbed to one or more of the non-antibiotic drugs thrown at them. This could be a starting point for the development of new antimicrobial agents which would eliminate bacteria that have proved intractable to other means."
Every drug the researchers tested has already been approved for human use -- which means they could all eventually be used as a second wave of antibiotics.

Comments

Haha but this whole question is nonsense

[presidenteloco]

An "antibiotic" is "a medicine that inhibits the growth of or destroys microorganisms".

So if it inhibits or destroys bacteria, it's an antibiotic, whether you traditionally think of it as one or not.

A better article title would have been something like: "Some existing medicines used for other conditions are found to act as antibiotics". Boring but less misleading.