Some external antibiotics can improve resistance to viral infections

a class of antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections reduces mice's susceptible to herpes, influenza and Zika viruses by stimulating host cells to form antiviral states, according to a paper published online by
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antibiotics are widely used to treat bacterial infections in humans, but their direct impact on the human body is still unknown. The potential toxicity of amino glycoside antibiotics is mainly used in hospitals to treat life-threatening bacterial infections, but they are also used as external medicines for eye and ear infections.
Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University in Connecticut and colleagues report that the use of antibiotics with amino glycosides before vaginal and nose viral infections can increase the host's resistance to herpes simplex, influenza A and Zika viruses. The antibiotics act directly on mouse cells and do not depend on their microbiome. The authors found that amino glycoside antibiotics can cause dexterous cells (the "sentinel" of the immune system) to secrete signaling proteins that induce resistance to viruses in the vagina and lung mucosa. It has been shown that this effect can only be achieved with antibiotics before infection with the virus. In addition, the effect is short-lived, so treating viral infections with amino glycoside antibiotics does not provide any guarantee (although ointments containing amino glycoside antibiotics may come with some protection against the virus). Still, the study shows how antibiotics directly affect a patient's body and reveals a new way to accidentally activate antiviral defenses. The findings may help develop new, more potency and less toxic drugs that simulate the effects of amino glycoside antibiotics as broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. (Source: Science Network Jin Nan)