Substances that are part of the juice of cranberries, are able to protect the human body from bacterial infections and may in the future replace antibiotics, becoming increasingly less effective because of the increased drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria.

During many years of research, the specialists of the Polytechnic Institute of Worcester (USA) managed to completely reconstruct the biochemical mechanisms underlying the many beneficial properties of cranberry juice.

The results of the next study of American scientists were presented at the annual conference of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco. The ability of cranberry juice to prevent bacterial infections and, in particular, urinary tract infections, is known quite widely, but the nature of the biochemical interactions underlying it has for a long time remained unclear.

In previous studies, a group of scientists from the Polytechnic Institute of Worcester under the guidance of Professor Terry Camasano concluded that the cranberry substances contained in the juice of tannins modify the structure of the processes of the cell membrane of pathogenic microorganisms. Under their action, numerous flagella of bacteria shorten and lose their mobility, which greatly complicates the process of attaching the bacterium to the cells of the urinary tract epithelium. In a new study, it was found that under the influence of tannins, E. coli bacteria E. coli changes not only the shape of the flagella, but also the structure of the membrane itself, as well as the shape, turning from a stick into a ball. In addition, tannins are deprived of E. coli ability to produce an indole substance, involved in the exchange of signals between bacteria of one species. All these metamorphoses reduce the viability of pathogenic bacteria and make it difficult to introduce them into the tissues of the affected organism.

According to Terry Camesano, the findings suggest that cranberry juice or some of its components can be successfully used as antibacterial agents. "These results are very interesting and promising, especially given the growing concern about the increasingly frequent occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria". - notes Kamesano.

sportzal. com.