Researchers from Iowa State University have found that dietary zinc supplements may help prevent bacteria from sharing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes, potentially offering a new approach against a growing global public health threat. “We have been treating bacterial infections with antibiotics for many years, but we are now facing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, including resistance to the last-resort antibiotics we’ve developed,” Melha Mellata, a microbiologist at Iowa State University and senior author on the study, told The Epoch Times. “Unfortunately, we are not developing new antibiotics at a sufficient rate because when we create an antibiotic, bacteria inevitably adapt and become resistant,” she added.
A particularly concerning aspect of AMR is that bacteria can share resistance genes, meaning patients may be resistant to multiple antibiotics before treatment even begins. This is the first study to demonstrate zinc’s ability to prevent AMR plasmid transfer between bacteria, Mellata said. Unlike antibiotics, zinc supplementation at low doses doesn’t appear to harm beneficial gut bacteria.
“We observed that when we combined the vaccine with probiotics, there were significantly fewer bacteria containing plasmids with antimicrobial resistance,” Mellata said. This observation prompted the team to investigate other oral interventions, including dietary supplements. Laboratory Findings Show Promise They conducted experiments using avian path.
