Used to be that sick kids got lollypops after a visit with the doctor. But in some cases candy can be more than a reward—it can be part of the therapy. Because scientists have found that, [--1--] chronic infections, sugar can [--2--] of antibiotics. The study appears in the journal Nature. [James Collins, Mark Brynildsen and Kyle Allison, Metabolite-enabled eradication of bacterial persisters by aminoglycosides]

Chronic infections can be caused by persistent bacteria that have learned how to [--3--] until all the antibiotics are gone. They’re not exactly antibiotic resistant, so they don’t have any special drug-destroying mutations. They just power down, metabolically speaking, and then wait until the coast is clear (of antibiotics) to come back to life. Which is why the poor patient just can’t seem to clear the infection.

To eliminate such [--4--] bacteria, scientists at Boston University searched for a way to jump start the bugs’ metabolism. And they found that sugar is just what the doctor ordered. Administering sugar along with an antibiotic called gentamicin cured mice with chronic urinary tract infections, and kept the bacteria from spreading to their kidneys.

So a [--5--] of sugar does more than make the medicine go down. It helps the medicine take the microbes down.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
in battling boost the effectiveness lay low stealthy spoonful
服完藥后吃點(diǎn)糖 每次看完醫(yī)生后，小孩子就會得到棒棒糖做獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。但是，有時(shí)候糖果并不僅僅只是一個(gè)獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)，它也是治療的一部分?？茖W(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在治療慢性傳染病時(shí)，糖分可以提高抗生素的療效。該研究發(fā)表在《自然》期刊上。【James Collins, Mark Brynildsen and Kyle Allison, 氨基咁類抗生素破壞細(xì)菌的代謝持久性】 引起的慢性感染的持久性細(xì)菌在抗生素小時(shí)前會維持低調(diào)的狀態(tài)。這并不是完全的抗藥性表現(xiàn)，也就是說它們沒有任何的抗藥性突變。從新陳代謝的角度講，它們僅僅是處于一種休眠狀態(tài)，等抗生素的威脅過后重新開始活躍，這也是受感染的病人久久無法痊愈的原因。 為清除這種隱秘的細(xì)菌，波士頓大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們找到一種迅速紊亂細(xì)菌的新陳代謝。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)糖正是他們要找的東西。將糖和艮他霉素一起給小老師服用可治愈慢性尿路感染，阻止細(xì)菌在老鼠腎臟內(nèi)繁殖。