Scientists at Aston University have made a possible new medicine that combines manuka honey with a common drug to treat a lung infection that could be fatal and reduce the side effects of one of the current drugs used to treat it.
The research, which was published in the journal Microbiology, shows that the Mycobacterial Research Group at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Aston University made a lab-based nebulization formulation using manuka honey and the drug amikacin to treat the dangerous bacterial lung infection Mycobacterium abscessus.
Manuka honey has long been known to have a variety of therapeutic benefits, but more recently, its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity has come to light. A number of drug-resistant bacterial infections, including Mycobacterium abscessus, which typically affects people with cystic fibrosis (CF) or bronchiectasis, may now be killed by manuka honey, according to recent research.
One in every 2,500 babies born in the UK is affected by the genetic condition cystic fibrosis (CF), which also affects more than 100,000 people worldwide, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. According to the NHS, bronchiectasis is a long-term condition in which the airways in the lungs widen. This causes extra mucus to build up, which can make the lungs more likely to get sick.
Mycobacterium abscessus bacteria samples from 16 CF patients were used in the study by the researchers. Then, they did tests with the antibiotic amikacin and manuka honey to find out how much of each would be needed to kill the bacteria.
The research team used a lab-based lung model and a nebulizer, a machine that emits a fine spray of liquid that is frequently used to administer medication. It was found that nebulizing manuka honey and amikacin together could kill more bacteria, even when lower doses of amikacin were used. This would mean that patients would experience fewer side effects that would change their lives.
In the UK, 13% of the 10,800 people with CF who live with the disease are infected with Mycobacterium abscessus. This new strategy is helpful because it might be able to get rid of a disease that is hard to treat with current methods. It also has fewer side effects, which improves patients’ quality of life and makes it much more likely that they will survive the infection.
Mycobacterium abscessus is a bacterial pathogen from the same family that causes tuberculosis. It also causes skin and soft tissue infections in addition to serious lung infections in people (especially children) with pre-existing lung conditions like cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis. The bacteria is also very resistant to medications.
Currently, patients receive a cocktail of antibiotics that typically lasts 12 months or longer and acts as antimicrobial chemotherapy without curing the illness. Amikacin is typically administered to patients at a rate of 16 micrograms per milliliter in order to eradicate the infection. However, the scientists discovered that the new mixture containing manuka honey only needed a dosage of 2 micrograms per millilitre of amikacin, resulting in an eight-fold reduction in the drug’s dosage.
Mycobacterium abscessus has been nearly impossible to completely eradicate in cystic fibrosis patients up until now. Also, if the patient needs a lung transplant but can’t get surgery while the infection is active, it can be fatal.
Lead author and PhD researcher Victoria Nolan commented on their research findings as follows:
The drug resistance of Mycobacterium abscessus has made treating pulmonary infections with it difficult thus far. The wide range of antibiotics needed to treat infections have negative side effects.
But the use of this potential remedy, which combines amikacin and manuka honey, shows great promise as an improved treatment for these terrible pulmonary infections.
We need better results from treatments, so we hope to test this possible therapy more in the future.
Senior lecturer in microbiology at Aston University, Dr. Jonathan Cox, said:
“We have discovered a way to potentially kill off these bacteria with eight times less drugs than before by combining amikacin, one of the most important yet toxic drugs used to treat Mycobacterium abscessus, with a completely natural ingredient like manuka honey. This has the potential to significantly lower hearing loss brought on by amikacin and significantly raise patients’ quality of life, especially for those with cystic fibrosis.
“I am thrilled with the results of this study because they pave the way for future experiments, and we hope that with funding we can move towards clinical trials that could result in a change in strategy for the treatment of this crippling infection,” the author of the study said.
The Microbiology Society’s CEO, Dr. Peter Cotgreave, said:
The Microbiology Society is honored to assist the scientific community in finding creative solutions to the antimicrobial resistance problem, which is becoming a major global problem. This study shows one of the many ways that microbiologists are coming up with new ways to treat infections that are hard to treat with medicines. They are doing this by adding natural products like manuka honey to treatments that already work.
