Non-antibiotics disrupt colonization resistance against enteropathogens

Anne Grießhammer, Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga, Patrick Müller, Cordula Gekeler, Jan Homolak, Hsuan Chang, Katharina Schmitt, Chiara Planker, Verena Schmidtchen, Suchira Gallage, Erwin Bohn, Taylor H. Nguyen, Jenny Hetzer, Mathias Heikenwälder, Kerwyn Casey Huang, Taiyeb Zahir and Lisa Maier ()
Additional contact information
Anne Grießhammer: University of Tübingen
Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga: University of Tübingen
Patrick Müller: University of Tübingen
Cordula Gekeler: University of Tübingen
Jan Homolak: University of Tübingen
Hsuan Chang: Genome Biology
Katharina Schmitt: University of Tübingen
Chiara Planker: University of Tübingen
Verena Schmidtchen: University of Tübingen
Suchira Gallage: University Hospital Tübingen
Erwin Bohn: University of Tübingen
Taylor H. Nguyen: Stanford University
Jenny Hetzer: University Hospital Tübingen
Mathias Heikenwälder: University Hospital Tübingen
Kerwyn Casey Huang: Stanford University
Taiyeb Zahir: University of Tübingen
Lisa Maier: University of Tübingen

Nature, 2025, vol. 644, issue 8076, 497-505

Abstract: Abstract Non-antibiotic drugs can alter the composition of the gut microbiome1, but they have largely unknown implications for human health2. Here we examined how non-antibiotics affect the ability of gut commensals to resist colonization by enteropathogens3. We also developed an in vitro assay to assess enteropathogen growth in drug-perturbed microbial communities. Pathogenic Gammaproteobacteria were more resistant to non-antibiotics than commensals and their post-treatment expansion was potentiated. For 28% of the 53 drugs tested, the growth of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium. (S. Tm) in synthetic and human stool-derived communities was increased, and similar effects were observed for other enteropathogens. Non-antibiotics promoted pathogen proliferation by inhibiting the growth of commensals, altering microbial interactions and enhancing the ability of S. Tm to exploit metabolic niches. Drugs that promoted pathogen expansion in vitro increased the intestinal S. Tm load in mice. For the antihistamine terfenadine, drug-induced disruption of colonization resistance accelerated disease onset and increased inflammation caused by S. Tm. Our findings identify non-antibiotics as previously overlooked risk factors that may contribute to the development of enteric infections.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09217-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:644:y:2025:i:8076:d:10.1038_s41586-025-09217-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09217-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().