New York, NY, USA. Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) plays a major role in protecting bacteria from the effects of many different antibiotics, a finding that suggests development of new techniques for suppressing bacterial defenses, reversing antibiotic resistance, and using antibiotics at lower doses.

Over the longer term, understanding the roles of bacterial gases, such as H₂S and nitric oxide (NO), can lead the way toward better in utero treatments, heading off complications in the latter stages of pregnancy, and birth.


Although scientists have known for centuries that many bacteria produce hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) it was thought to be simply a toxic by-product of cellular activity. However, researchers at the New York University School of Medicine have discovered H₂S does in fact plays a major role in protecting bacteria from the effects of numerous different antibiotics.



Evgeny A. Nudler, Ph.D, is the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at the New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Nudler is recognized for pioneering studies in various biological fields, such as transcription, bacterial gene regulation, and genetic regulation.A study led by Evgeny Nudler, PhD, a Professor of Biochemistry at NYU, found evidence that H₂S acts as a general defense mechanism against oxidative stress, the process through which many antibiotics kill bacteria.

This information provides the basis for developing new techniques to suppress this universal bacterial defense mechanism and make bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics at lower doses. It also paves the way for reversing antibiotic resistance in human pathogens such as Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, E. coli, and many others. The study's findings were published in the journal Science.

"Surprisingly little has been known about H₂S biochemistry and physiology in common bacteria" said Dr. Nudler. "We are excited about the potential impact this research may have on the growing problem of microbial resistance. These findings suggest a conceptually new approach, an adjuvant therapy that targets bacterial gas defenses and thus increases the efficacy of many clinically used antibiotics."

• The study showed that integrated mechanism of H₂S-mediated protection against oxidative stress also protects against antibiotics. The research provides direct support for the emerging concept of the pro-oxidative action of many antibiotics.
  
  
• Bacteria that simultaneously generate H₂S and nitric oxide (NO), such as B. anthracis (anthrax causative), cannot survive without both, even under normal growth conditions. One gas makes up for the lack of the other and at least one of them is essential.

In a previous study Dr. Nudler and his colleagues demonstrated that NO plays a similar role in protecting bacteria from antibiotics (Science September 9, 2009). However, because NO is present in only a limited number of bacteria while hydrogen sulfide synthesis occurs in essentially all bacteria, the practical implications of this new finding is extremely wide-ranging.

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