Antibiotics Can Interfere with Priming of Neutrophils by Gut Microbiota

Abstract

Administering broad-spectrum antibiotics to infected patients can also knock out benign intestinal bacteria, which play a key role in overall immunity by priming neutrophils in bone marrow, say researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Because such losses of gut flora can disrupt host-immune responses, heavy-duty antibiotic treatments thus raise the risk for such patients of developing severe secondary infections, particularly while in hospital settings. On the plus side, replacing the bacterial signals that routinely prime neutrophils may someday provide a valuable means for offsetting these disruptive effects of broad-spectrum antibiotics, suggests Jeffrey Weiser, a professor of microbiology and pediatrics at Penn, and his collaborators.