Tamoxifen, which blocks estrogen receptors in breast tissue, is used by hundreds of thousands of women and men with advanced breast cancer.
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“The threat of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens is growing, yet the pipeline of new antibiotics is drying up”.
Researchers from University of California-San Diego set out to determine whether tamoxifen may be effective against MRSA by influencing the behavior of neutrophils.
However, it seems that breast cancer patients are not the only ones who will benefit from this drug as a new study suggests that Tamoxifen can also help eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as “superbug”.
Dr. Victor Nizet, pediatrics and pharmacy professor and lead author of the study, explains that as the resiliency of MRSA continues to grow, experts need to look for better and tougher solution that antibiotics to fight them off. This study encourages others to check if the safe-to-use and the effective drug can also be used to act as potential infection fighters. Sphingolipids, and ceramide, in particular, play a role in regulating the activities of white blood cells known as neutrophils.
A UC San Diego study has found that Tamoxifen could give a big boost to white blood cells..
To assess their theory, the researchers nurtured human neutrophils with tamoxifen. Findings revealed that treated neutrophils were better at moving toward and engulfing bacteria and also spew out to ensnare and kill pathogens. It also worked well against two other superbugs, according to the report. Treating neutrophils with other molecules that aim the estrogen receptor, were observed to be unaffected, signifying that tamoxifen improves NET production in a way distinct to the estrogen receptor.
The researchers treated mice with tamoxifen to test its ability to boost the immune system.
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Trials on mice showed that while those infected with MRSA all died after one day, 35 per cent of those also given tamoxifen were still alive after five days. They treated the mice once more with tamoxifen or the control one and eight hours after infection and observed them for the next five days. Five times fewer MRSA were found in peritoneal fluid taken from the mice’s abdomens.
