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In a groundbreaking study, scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, along with colleagues from the University of Montpellier in France and the University of Oldenburg in Germany, have discovered a potential new approach to combat antibiotic resistance. By investigating the effects of fever on bacteria, they found that a small increase in temperature from 37 to 40 degrees Celsius significantly altered the mutation frequency in E. coli, which plays a critical role in the development of resistance. These findings, published in the journal JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, could pave the way for innovative strategies to mitigate antibiotic resistance if replicated in human patients.
Antimicrobial resistance is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top global public health threats. The traditional methods to combat this issue involve developing new drugs or preventing the development of resistance. However, this new study suggests that controlling fever could be an effective way to achieve the latter.
Timo van Eldijk, co-first author of the paper, explained the motivation behind the study: “We know that temperature affects the mutation rate in bacteria. What we wanted to find out was how the increase in temperature associated with fever influences the mutation rate towards antibiotic resistance.”
Most previous studies focused on resistance mutations by lowering the ambient temperature, but this study uniquely examined the effects of a moderate increase above normal body temperature. Van Eldijk, along with Master’s student Eleanor Sheridan, cultured E. coli bacteria at 37 and 40 degrees Celsius and exposed them to three different antibiotics to assess the impact.
The results revealed that increased temperature led to a higher mutation rate towards resistance for two of the antibiotics, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin. Surprisingly, the third antibiotic, ampicillin, showed a decrease in the mutation rate towards resistance at higher temperatures. This finding was verified through replication in different labs at the University of Groningen and the University of Montpellier.
The researchers hypothesized that the efficacy of ampicillin might be temperature-dependent, which was confirmed in subsequent experiments. This discovery suggests that ampicillin resistance is less likely to develop at fever temperatures. “Our study shows that a very mild change in temperature can drastically change the mutation rate towards resistance to antimicrobials,” Van Eldijk stated. “This is interesting, as other parameters such as the growth rate do not seem to change.”
If these results can be replicated in humans, it could lead to new strategies for combating antimicrobial resistance. This might involve using fever-suppressing drugs to lower the temperature or administering antimicrobial drugs that are more effective at higher temperatures to patients with a fever. The research team concluded in their paper that “an optimized combination of antibiotics and fever suppression strategies may be a new weapon in the battle against antibiotic resistance.”
This study represents a significant step forward in the fight against one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time, offering hope for more effective ways to manage and mitigate the threat of antibiotic-resistant infections.
