Chilean Avocado Could Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Study Suggests

he Chilean avocado may have a role in the fight against antibiotic resistance, a new study suggests.

The research, published in the Journal of Microbial Chemotherapy shows that a substance in the Chilean avocado is able to hone in on a resistance mechanism ofStaphylococcus aureus (called yellow staphylococcus in the study and known commonly as 'staph infection'). This type of bacteria is the No. 1 cause of post-operation wound infection, and can also cause a variety of ills ranging from sepsis to food poisoning.

The avocado works in concert with traditional antibiotics to treat infections that are resistant to antibiotics alone. Researchers explained that a compound in the avocado is able to lower the "MIC level" of an antibiotic. The MIC Level is the lowest concentration of an antibiotic that is needed to stop the growth of bacteria. In this instance, the avocado compound lowered the antibiotic's MIC level by eight times.

Study researcher Jes Gitz Holler, of the University of Copenhagen, explained how the avocado assisted the antibiotic in a statement.

"Resistant bacteria have an efflux pump in their bacterial membrane that efficiently pumps out antibiotics as soon as they have gained access," Holler explained in the statement. "I have identified a natural substance that inhibits the pumping action, so that the bacteria's defense mechanisms are broken down and the antibiotic treatment allowed to work."

The leaves of this particular avocado plant are already used for wound healing among the Mapuche people in Chile, researchers explained.

Avocados aren't the only thing that have shown promise in the realm of infection-fighting. Scientific American reported on a study in the journal Microbiology showing that manuka honey -- honey made from the manuka flower -- is able to kill off strep bacteria in lab tests.

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Antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a paradigm of adaptive power.

Antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a paradigm of adaptive power.

Curr Opin Microbiol. 2007 Oct 5

de Lencastre H, Oliveira D, Tomasz A.

Laboratory of Microbiology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB) da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), 2780 Oeiras, Portugal.

Nothing documents better the spectacular adaptive capacity of Staphylococcus aureus than the response of this important human and animal pathogen to the introduction of antimicrobial agents into the clinical environment. The effectiveness of penicillin introduced in the early 1940s was virtually annulled within a decade because of the plasmid epidemics that spread the ss-lactamase gene through the entire species of S. aureus. In 1960 within one to two years of the introduction of penicillinase resistant ss-lactams (methicillin), methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains were identified in clinical specimens. By the 1980s, epidemic clones of MRSA acquired multidrug resistant traits and spread worldwide to become one of the most important causative agents of hospital acquired infections. In the early 2000s, MRSA strains carrying the Tn1546 transposon-based enterococcal vancomycin resistant mechanism were identified in clinical specimens, bringing the specter of a totally resistant bacterial pathogen closer to reality. Then, in the late 1990s, just as effective hygienic and antibiotic use policies managed to bring down the frequency of MRSA in hospitals of several countries, MRSA strains began to show up in the community.

PMID: 17921044 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]