How Antibiotics Stress Liver Cells: Antibiotics are given to eliminate bacterial infections. These medicines are life saving and help us fight serious infections. However, these medicines should be used only after doctor’s advice, because their wrong use is dangerous for the liver. It is often seen that some antibiotics increase liver enzymes or cause severe inflammation. This creates a risk of liver failure. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have found out in the study why some antibiotics cause more damage to the liver, while some medicines cause less damage.
Experts compared two powerful antibiotics, Teicoplanin and Oritavancin. Both these medicines are used in the treatment of serious bacterial infections such as pneumonia and MRSA. Despite being chemically similar and having the same mechanism of killing bacteria, teicoplanin has been found to be more harmful to the liver, while oritavancin is better tolerated by the body. To solve this mystery, researchers used advanced technologies like dynamic light scattering and cryo-TEM.
The study revealed that oritavancin penetrates deep into the cell membrane, which changes the structure of the membrane, but does not cause much harm to the liver. In contrast, teicoplanin remains stuck to the surface of the cell membrane. Its remaining on the surface for a long time proves to be more fatal for the liver cells. According to Akash Kumar Jha, lead author of this research, the medicine sticking to the surface hinders the electrical properties and mutual communication of the cell, which can ultimately lead to liver failure.
In experiments conducted on rats, it was found that the rats given teicoplanin drug showed a huge increase in liver enzymes, inflammation and tissue damage. Whereas in rats given oritavancin, this effect was very less and normal. This proves that the toxicity of a drug is determined by where it is located on the cell membrane. If the drug affects the packing and movement of the outer lipid layer of the cell, it acts like a slow poison for the liver.
This study of IIT Bombay can prove to be a milestone in the manufacturing of safe medicines in future. Now scientists will be able to predict how safe a new medicine will be for the liver even before the clinical trials begin. Using this membrane-focused approach, drugs can be designed that minimally interfere with healthy cells. This process can be implemented on a large scale, making safety testing of new drugs more accurate.
Professor Kumar clarified that medicines like teicoplanin and oritavancin are not for common cold. These are given only to those seriously hospitalized patients in whom bacteria become resistant to common antibiotics. For patients with weak immunity, diabetes or those on ventilator, these medicines are the last way to save their lives. In such a situation, understanding which drug is less risky for the patient’s liver will help doctors choose the right treatment and save patients’ lives from additional risks.