CiprofloxacinWIKIMEDIA, SHORELANDERIn addition to the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bugs, there may be another reason doctors should refrain from freely prescribing antibiotics. According to a paper published online today (July 3) in Science Translational Medicine, certain antibiotics cause mammalian mitochondria to fail, which in turn leads to tissue damage.
“What the authors are suggesting is that in addition to the bactericidal properties of antibiotics, they also affect . . . the mitochondria,” said Navdeep Chandel, a professor of medicine and cellular biology at Northwestern University in Chicago, who was not involved in the work. “And what’s fascinating about that is that mitochondria are thought to be [ancient] bacteria themselves.”
Indeed, mitochondria, the organelles responsible for energy production in the cell, have bacteria-like DNA and other molecules, suggesting that mitochondria are the product of an ancient endosymbiotic event, in which a bacterium was engulfed by another cell. The important implication of this, said Ronald DePinho, president of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, who also did not participate in the research, is that ...
