Antibiotics Can Lead to Fungal Infection Because of Disruption to the Gut's Immune System
upstart writes:
Antibiotics can lead to fungal infection because of disruption to the gut's immune system:
Using immune-boosting drugs alongside the antibiotics could reduce the health risks from these complex infections say the researchers.
The life-threatening fungal infection invasive candidiasis is a major complication for hospitalised patients who are given antibiotics to prevent sepsis and other bacterial infections that spread quickly around hospitals (such as C. diff). Fungal infections can be more difficult to treat than bacterial infections, but the underlying factors causing these infections are not well understood.
A team in the University's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, in conjunction with researchers at the National Institutes of Health, discovered that antibiotics disrupt the immune system in the intestines, meaning that fungal infections were poorly controlled in that area. Unexpectedly, the team also found that where fungal infections developed, gut bacteria were also able to escape, leading to the additional risk of bacterial infection.
Journal Reference:
Rebecca A. Drummond et al., Long-term antibiotic exposure promotes mortality after systemic fungal infection by driving lymphocyte dysfunction and systemic escape of commensal bacteria, Cell Host & Microbe, 2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2022.04.013
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