What is it about?

Antibiotics are major contributors in inducing the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Although antidepressants have been consumed at increased trend, yet little is known whether they cause the spread of antibiotic resistance. In this study, we found that E. coli bacteria, when exposed to commonly prescribed antidepressants at clinically relevant concentrations, develop resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Our study advanced our understanding of the roles of non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals in the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The findings might be also useful for pharmaceutical factories and public health organizations to comprehensively evaluate antimicrobial sides of antidepressants.

Perspectives

I hope you find this article thought-provoking, and I also expect this article would evoke more research to explore antibiotic-like roles of antidepressants through employing more bacterial strains or in vivo studies.

Jianhua Guo
University of Queensland

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Antidepressants can induce mutation and enhance persistence toward multiple antibiotics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2208344120.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page