蜂蜜抑菌作用的研究进展及其遏制细菌耐药性的潜力

Research Progress on Antibacterial Effect of Honey and Its Potential to Inhibit Bacterial Resistance

抗生素耐药已成为全球公共卫生的重大威胁,人体肠道及环境中的细菌在抗生素及环境压力的长期选择下产生适应性进化从而产生耐药性。目前因细菌对抗生素不敏感而导致的细菌耐药已成为全球生态环境与健康的重大威胁,因此迫切需要寻找和开发抗生素的有效替代品。蜂蜜在抗生素问世之前就已被用于外伤感染的局部治疗,具有良好的抑菌效果。目前,蜂蜜已经被证实可以抑制多种耐药菌。由于其含有多种抑菌成分,而且各成分之间还具有一定的协同作用,以致细菌很难对蜂蜜产生耐药性。本文系统回顾了抗生素问世前蜂蜜用作抗感染药物的早期应用,以及抗生素发明以来产生的细菌耐药性问题,通过阐述蜂蜜的抑菌作用机理,提出了将蜂蜜作为抗生素替代品的可行性。未来可考虑将蜂蜜与抗生素联用从而增强抗生素的治疗效果,蜂蜜有潜力成为对抗耐药细菌的一种有效手段。

Antibiotic resistance has become a major threat to global public health.Human intestinal and environmental microbiota have evolved adaptively under the long-term selection of antibiotics and other environmental stresses to develop drug resistance.At present,bacterial resistance caused by insensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics has become a significant threat to global ecological-environment and health,therefore,there is an urgent need to develop effective substitutes for these less effective antibiotics.Honey has long been used for the topical treatment of chronic-infected wounds before the antibiotic era,which exhibits favourable antibacterial effects.Until recently,honey has been shown to inhibit a variety of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.Furthermore,it is difficult for bacteria to develop honey-resistance because honey contains complicated antimicrobial components,and each component also has a certain synergistic effect.This paper systematically reviews the early application of honey as an antimicrobial agent before antibiotic emergence,and the main challenge that caused by bacterial resistance since the invention of antibiotics,particularly in the recent years.We put forward the feasibility of using honey as a substitute for antibiotics via elaborating the antibacterial mechanism of honey.In the future,we propose that honey be used in combination with antibiotics to enhance the therapeutic effect of antibiotics,and honey has the great potential to be used as an effective strategy to fight against the ever increasing trend of antibiotic resistance.