Cranberry Juice Denatures E.coli?

[SteveGrenard]

WPI Press Release: Compounds in Cranberry Juice Show Promise as Alternatives to Antibiotics for Treating a Host of Human Illnesses

Worcester, Mass. - September 11, 2006 - Compounds in cranberry juice have the ability to change E. coli bacteria, a class of microorganisms responsible for a host of human illnesses (everything from kidney infections to gastroenteritis to tooth decay), in ways that render them unable to initiate an infection. The results of this new research by scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) suggest that the cranberry may provide an alternative to antibiotics, particularly for combating E. coli bacteria that have become resistant to conventional treatment.

...snip...

http://foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/archives/e-coli-prevention-204-cranberry-juice-and-e-coli.html

 

[Ryokan]

Have the results been peer-reviewed?

 

[Infinite]

Women have always known or were told to drink Cranberry juice and now we know how it helps. Good to know. Thanks

 

[SteveGrenard]

Have the results been peer-reviewed?

Yes, at a meeting of the researcher's peers in San Francisco on September 10, 2006:

The new findings, which were be presented on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, for the first time begin to paint a detailed picture of the biochemical mechanisms that may underlie a number of beneficial health effects of cranberry juice that have been reported in other studies over the years.

and this:

The new results build on previously published work, in which Camesano and her team showed that cranberry juice causes tiny tendrils (known as fimbriae) on the surface of the type of E. coli bacteria responsible for the most serious types of UTIs to become compressed. Since the fimbriae make it possible for the bacteria to bind tightly to the lining of the urinary tract, the change in shape greatly reduces the ability of the bacteria to stay put long enough to initiate an infection.

As the above indicates and if you check MedLine searching cranberries, e.coli and cranberries, etc., you will find quite a few supporting or allied studies in the peer reviewed literature as well.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Have the results been peer-reviewed?

And you may enjoy this one. What's especially interesting is that this effect on the E.coli appears not to be pH related.

1: Biotechnol Bioeng. 2006 Feb 5;93(2):297-305. Links

Role of cranberry juice on molecular-scale surface characteristics and adhesion behavior of Escherichia coli.

Liu Y, Black MA, Caron L, Camesano TA.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA.

Cranberry juice has long been believed to benefit the prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). As the first step in the development of infection, bacterial adhesion is of great research interest, yet few studies have addressed molecular level adhesion in this context. P-fimbriated Escherichia coli play a major role in the development of a serious type of UTI, acute pyelonephritis. Experiments were conducted to investigate the molecular-scale effects of cranberry juice on two E. coli strains: HB101, which has no fimbriae, and the mutant HB101pDC1 which expresses P-fimbriae. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to investigate both bacterial surface characteristics and adhesion forces between a probe surface (silicon nitride) and the bacteria, providing a direct evaluation of bacterial adhesion and interaction forces. Cranberry juice affected bacterial surface polymer and adhesion behavior after a short exposure period (<3 h). Cranberry juice affected the P-fimbriated bacteria by decreasing the adhesion forces between the bacterium and tip and by altering the conformation of the surface macromolecules on E. coli HB101pDC1. The equilibrium length of polymer (P-fimbriae) on this bacterium decreased from approximately 148 to approximately 48 nm upon being exposed to cranberry juice. Highly acidic conditions were not necessary for the prevention of bacterial adhesion, since neutralization of cranberry juice solutions to pH = 7.0 allowed us to observe differences in adhesion between the E. coli strains. Our results demonstrate molecular-level changes in the surfaces of P-fimbriated E. coli upon exposure to neutralized cranberry juice.

PMID: 16142789 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

[Ryokan]

Thanks, Steve, that's very interesting.

There was a spree of E.coli infections through meat earlier this year here in Norway.

Strangely enough, this year I also saw my first carton of cranberry juice in stores! Very expensive and kind of bitter, but not at all unpleasant.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Thanks, Steve, that's very interesting.

There was a spree of E.coli infections through meat earlier this year here in Norway.

Strangely enough, this year I also saw my first carton of cranberry juice in stores! Very expensive and kind of bitter, but not at all unpleasant.

I guess the Cranberry Juice you saw in your stores must have been imported. I believe that the juiciest cranberries come from North America. They grow in unique bogs placed in lowland swamp.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in the American states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. Wisconsin has led the United States in cranberry production since 1995. A very small production is found in southern Chile, in the Baltic States and in eastern Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry

University of Massachusetts Cranberry Station website:

http://www.umass.edu/cranberry/

http://www.umass.edu/cranberry/cranberry/seasons.shtml

 

[Ryokan]

I guess the Cranberry Juice you saw in your stores must have been imported. I believe that the juiciest cranberries come from North America. They grow in unique bogs placed in lowland swamp.

Yeah, they were imported from the US. No cranberries in Europe, as far as I know.

 

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

You can drop all sorts of crap on bacteria and make them unhappy but the problem comes in getting the agent that is being investigated into the relevant parts of a human body at a high enough concentration and without damaging the patient. At a recent garlic festival I attended there was a picture of a piece of garlic sitting in a ring of inhibition on a Petri dish otherwise confluent with MRSA. Great. Garlic kills MRSA. But so does bleach. That doesn't mean we can fill up the human body with either of these in order to cure MRSA.

So, I add an extra helping of healthy scepticism every time I read a breathless report of an exciting in vitro discovery of this type.

 

[SteveGrenard]

You can drop all sorts of crap on bacteria and make them unhappy but the problem comes in getting the agent that is being investigated into the relevant parts of a human body at a high enough concentration and without damaging the patient.

Yes, of course. This was how penicillin was discovered and then ignored. It remained to others to pick up Fleming's ball and run with it. Pencillin wasn't used clinically until April, 1943.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming was working at St. Mary's Hospital in London. He was researching agents that could be used to combat bacterial infections. One serious infection at that time was caused by staphylococci bacteria.Once, when Fleming went on vacation, he left his culture plates unwashed. When he came back a few weeks later, he noticed that something had "grown" on one of the culture plates. It was mould, and the staphylococci were not growing around it! Apparently, the mould was secreting a substance which prevented these harmful bacteria from growing. Fleming named the substance "Penicillin" after the mould, "Penicillium notatum," that was found on the culture plate. He later did some experiments with penicillin, but was not able to purify it, and did not really realize its potential for treatment against infections.

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/penicillin/readmore.html

At a recent garlic festival I attended there was a picture of a piece of garlic sitting in a ring of inhibition on a Petri dish otherwise confluent with MRSA. Great. Garlic kills MRSA. But so does bleach. That doesn't mean we can fill up the human body with either of these in order to cure MRSA.

As in all drugs that were originally discovered in plants, molds and in animal secretions (venoms), finding the active ingredient and making it work efficaciously and as safely as possible is the principal objective of such research.

So, I add an extra helping of healthy scepticism every time I read a breathless report of an exciting in vitro discovery of this type.

I hope this does't mean you would abandon a line of inquiry because the first reports were or seem to be too good to be true. Retain the skepticism but follow the trail.

1: Biofactors. 2005;23(4):243-51. Links
The action of berry phenolics against human intestinal pathogens.
· Puupponen-Pimia R,
· Nohynek L,
· Alakomi HL,
· Oksman-Caldentey KM.
VTT Biotechnology, P.O. Box 1500, FI-02044 VTT, Finland. riitta.puupponen-pimia@vtt.fi

Phenolic compounds present in berries selectively inhibit the growth of human gastrointestinal pathogens. Especially cranberry, cloudberry, raspberry, strawberry and bilberry possess clear antimicrobial effects against e.g. salmonella and staphylococcus. Complex phenolic polymers, such as ellagitannins, are strong antibacterial agents present in cloudberry, raspberry and strawberry. Berry phenolics seem to affect the growth of different bacterial species with different mechanisms. Adherence of bacteria to epithelial surfaces is a prerequisite for colonization and infection of many pathogens. Antimicrobial activity of berries may also be related to anti-adherence activity of the berries. Utilization of enzymes in berry processing increases the amount of phenolics and antimicrobial activity of the berry products. Antimicrobial berry compounds are likely to have many important applications in the future as natural antimicrobial agents for food industry as well as for medicine.

Nurs Times. 2005 Nov 22-28;101(47):38-40. Links
Do cranberries help prevent urinary tract infections?
· Hutchinson J.
Airedale Primary Care Trust, Keighley Health Centre, West Yorkshire.
Cranberries are widely used in the treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and for those at risk of such infections. With the growing resistance to antibiotics, cranberries can be viewed as a useful non-pharmaceutical remedy (Lavender, 2000). The initial studies that looked at the effects of cranberries on urine showed that the excretion of hippuric acid from the berries helped the urine to remain acidic, which could explain why they could be used to treat and prevent infection (Harkin, 2000). Recent studies argue that cranberries prevent Escherichia coli (E. coli) from adhering to uroepithelial cells in the bladder (Howell and Foxman, 2002). Cranberries contain a group of compounds, called proanthocyanidins, which are condensed tannins (Gray, 2002; Lowe and Fagelman, 2001; Kuzminski, 1996). These are thought to be the key factors in inhibiting E. coli adherence.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I can say that from my very own anecdotal evidence, cranberry juice is very good at treating UTIs.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Obviously cranberry juice, since its ingested, has a direct effect on pathogens in the GI tract which may not be pH related (according to the new study in the OP) and since it's hippuric acid is eliminated via the urinary tract, it can effect micro-organisms causing UTIs. This is believed to be pH related.

 

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

I hope this does't mean you would abandon a line of inquiry because the first reports were or seem to be too good to be true. Retain the skepticism but follow the trail.

I don't think we are disagreeing, but my scepticism tends towards cynicism when I start to wonder how in vitro information like this gets itself into the national media. Sure it might be therapeutically useful after a great many further steps have been taken to translate it into safe effective medicine, but someone chose to write the press release and send it out now.

 

[Soapy Sam]

You don't mean...http://www.waterfall-d-mannose.com/e-coli-cranberry.htm

 

[IllegalArgument]

All very interesting, either way I love cranberry juice.

 

[SteveGrenard]

The News Release is my OP has been snipped by the Moderator Darat because in its entirety it was deemed a Breach of Rule 4. I did get it off a commercial site, Pritzkerlaw's food safety section but it originally did appear as a Press release from WPI at the URL I give below as matter of record.

I apologize to the Moderators for not realizing News/Press Releases verbatim in their entirety from original sources were subject to Rule 4:

http://www.wpi.edu/News/Releases/20067/cranberry.html

Here is WPI's statement on this usage:

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[RationalVetMed]

At a recent garlic festival I attended...

They have garlic festivals?!

Yuri

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

I've heard about garlic festivals, in an account by some fundy absolutely horrified that people were worshipping garlic. They sound tasty.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

Gilroy Garlic Festival. I went, many years ago, and had garlic ice cream.

 

[Dogdoctor]

A couple comments. One is that as far as I know cranberry juice has never been shown to be useful in treating bladder infections by itself. It has been shown to be useful to prevent them though it is not 100% effective. The idea that it affects the adhesion of e. coli to the bladder wall is nothing new however I have not heard this detailed of an explanation for it.