Antibiotic resistance has been a rising concern in the medical field for years. Some infections are becoming increasingly hard to treat as bacteria outmatch medications. However, new research found the artificial sweetener saccharin kills some of the most dangerous bacteria.
Some bacteria have evolved to become untreatable. Because of the misuse, and overuse, of antibiotics bacteria has bred survival traits to outlast drugs. In 2019, approximately five million deaths were linked to drug-resistant infections.
Prof. Ronan McCarthy led the study at Brunel Univ. London. He explained that “Saccharin breaks the walls of bacterial pathogens, causing them to distort and eventually burst, killing the bacteria.”
How the saccharin physically damages the bacteria allows the antibiotics to enter and kill them. The bacteria treated with saccharin grew but was unable to divide. It also disrupted the cell envelope around the bacteria, creating weak spots that made them vulnerable. The sweetener and meds could be paired to work together.
The sweetener wasn’t ingested for the study. It was put into a hydrogel applied to burn wounds on pig skin. The pigs who received the saccharin-infused topical treatment were significantly less likely to develop an infection than those who received traditional wound treatment. This is the same sweetener found in many drinks and foods; however, it was not eaten. Whether or not it could help orally was not studied.
“This is very exciting,” Prof McCarthy added. “Normally it takes billions of dollars and decades to develop a new antibiotic. But here we have a compound that’s already widely used, and it not only kills drug-resistant bacteria but also makes existing antibiotics more effective. Artificial sweeteners are found in many diet and sugar-free foods. We discovered that the same sweeteners you have with your coffee or in a ‘sugar-free’ drink could make some of the world’s most dangerous bacteria easier to treat.”
There are many arguments about artificial sweeteners’ safety or health value as a foodstuff. Research about how different sweeteners impact the body is ongoing. However, knowing that saccharin may have a medical use to fight antibiotic resistance could give people a new reason to like it. As antibiotics have a harder time doing their job, finding new ways to support them becomes crucial to helping people recover from illnesses.
