Statins and hayfever pills could be driving antibiotic resistance, warn scientists

Statins and hayfever pills could be fuelling antibiotic resistance by changing the growth of bacteria in the human gut, scientists have found.

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) looked at the impact of 1,000 common drugs on the 40 strains of gut bacteria and found that one quarter were having a negative impact.

Among those discovered to be harmful were simvstatin, one of the commonest statins, the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and the common hayfever medication loratidin.

The researchers warn that taking everyday pills may promote antibiotic resistance, as they encourage unhelpful bacteria to develop new resistant strains in the same way as antibiotics.

"This is scary," said Dr Nassos Typas, of  EMBL Heidelberg, Germany. "Considering that we take many non-antibiotic drugs in our life, often for long periods.

"We actually see drugs from all therapeutic classes impacting gut microbes. The most prominent from them are antipsychotics, antihypertensives, anti-cancer drugs, proton-pump inhibitors, antihistamines, painkillers and contraceptives."

Around 5,000 people in England die each year because antibiotics have become useless against some infections and experts predict resistance will kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined within 30 years.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, recently warned that an ‘antibiotic resistance apocalypse’ could end modern medicine, and make surgery, chemotherapy and caesareans too dangerous to carry out.

Dame Sally has previously described the threatened loss of antibiotics to the world as on a par with terrorism and climate change.

Resistant bacteria are much harder to treat and victims have far worse outcomes. For example people with MRSA are 64 per cent more likely to die than people with a non-resistant strain of the bacterium.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs naturally over time, as micro-organisms adapt and reproduce. Among the diseases which have growing antimicrobial resistant strains are: influenza, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. 

The human gut contains a large number of species of bacteria, collectively referred to as the microbiome, which is now known has a huge impact on health.

Scientists knew that antibiotics harm the microbiome, damaging the immune system and leaving people vulnerable to infections but were unsure whether other drugs were also having an impact.

"The number of unrelated drugs that hit gut microbes as collateral damage was surprising," said Dr Peer Bork, of EMBL.

The research was published in the journal Nature.