US Pharm. 2011;36(7):12.
Shreveport, LA — Cholesterol may boost the resistance of Helicobacter pylori to many antibiotics, as well as to the endogenous antimicrobial peptide LL-37. A full understanding of the cholesterol-uptake pathway might result in novel strategies that thwart H pylori by blocking that pathway. David McGee and colleagues at Louisiana State University grew H pylori in the absence or presence of cholesterol, treated the bacteria with various classes and concentrations of antibiotics, and compared the populations of surviving bacteria. H pylori grown with cholesterol was dramatically more resistant to numerous antibiotics, bismuth, and LL-37. “It would be important to learn whether we can manipulate the ability to clear H. pylori infections…by lowering cholesterol either through dietary means or cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins),” noted McGee.
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