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Something I thought was just an internet tale: mitochondria are close descendants of bacteria, and so taking antibiotics will potentially harm them. But turns o

Something I thought was just an internet tale: mitochondria are close descendants of bacteria, and so taking antibiotics will potentially harm them. But turns out this is actually rooted in science ...

chasil 1y ago
It does appear that this can be a problem. This paper is focusing on ribosome inhibitors like tetracycline. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8301944/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8301944/
alphazard 1y ago
It's specifically Quinolones which can harm mitochondria. There's no ongoing concern for something like Penicillin. We also shouldn't expect there to be mitochondrial risk from a fungi-derived chemical like Penicillin, since fungi also have mitochondria. In general you want the weakest and most targeted antibiotic for the job. Most people will never need a Quinolone, and you should be skeptical whenever sophisticated antibiotics are prescribed. Why not Penicillin? should have an answer involving the name of a bacteria, not the doctor's personal preference, or a relationship with a company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolone_antibiotic#Cellular_uptake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolone_antibiotic#Cellular_...
- omnibrain 1y ago
  > Most people will never need a Quinolone At least in Germany eye doctors are very happy to prescribe them. It's "only" eye drops, but it is (for laymen) almost impossible to find information if they are also dangerous in this form.
- phyphy 1y ago
  As someone who has been recently floxed by antibiotics, life has become miserable for me.
geuis 1y ago
Be very careful when stating this kind of thing. It's extremely easy for people that already have a hard time understanding science and medicine to take this as evidence to support their anti science and anti vaccine/medicine. Different antibiotics target different cellular mechanisms depending on what the microorganism is. And almost none of them target the mitochondria at all. Yes the common hypothesis is that mitochondria were originally a symbiotic separate organism that joined the cells that eventually became the origin of most complex life. Remember that if that's what happened, it was over 3 billion years ago. After that immense amount of time, mitochondria aren't really separate organisms anymore. They're deeply entwined into every complex organism in the world. Very unlikely for common antibiotics to have any effect on them at all.
- bigDinosaur 1y ago
  They do still act like separate organisms, including their own DNA and ability to synthesise proteins. Quinolones are known for being potentially very nasty, that's not 'anti-science'.
beacon294 1y ago
The core principle of classic antibiotics is affecting the bacterial (prokaryotic) common ribosomal structure and not the eukaryotic ribosome, they are very diverged. That's not to say there couldn't be some unrelated effect, but that's why we test medicine.

chasil 1y ago

It does appear that this can be a problem. This paper is focusing on ribosome inhibitors like tetracycline. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8301944/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8301944/

alphazard 1y ago

It's specifically Quinolones which can harm mitochondria. There's no ongoing concern for something like Penicillin. We also shouldn't expect there to be mitochondrial risk from a fungi-derived chemical like Penicillin, since fungi also have mitochondria. In general you want the weakest and most targeted antibiotic for the job. Most people will never need a Quinolone, and you should be skeptical whenever sophisticated antibiotics are prescribed. Why not Penicillin? should have an answer involving the name of a bacteria, not the doctor's personal preference, or a relationship with a company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolone_antibiotic#Cellular_uptake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolone_antibiotic#Cellular_...

omnibrain 1y ago
> Most people will never need a Quinolone At least in Germany eye doctors are very happy to prescribe them. It's "only" eye drops, but it is (for laymen) almost impossible to find information if they are also dangerous in this form.
phyphy 1y ago
As someone who has been recently floxed by antibiotics, life has become miserable for me.

geuis 1y ago

Be very careful when stating this kind of thing. It's extremely easy for people that already have a hard time understanding science and medicine to take this as evidence to support their anti science and anti vaccine/medicine. Different antibiotics target different cellular mechanisms depending on what the microorganism is. And almost none of them target the mitochondria at all. Yes the common hypothesis is that mitochondria were originally a symbiotic separate organism that joined the cells that eventually became the origin of most complex life. Remember that if that's what happened, it was over 3 billion years ago. After that immense amount of time, mitochondria aren't really separate organisms anymore. They're deeply entwined into every complex organism in the world. Very unlikely for common antibiotics to have any effect on them at all.

bigDinosaur 1y ago
They do still act like separate organisms, including their own DNA and ability to synthesise proteins. Quinolones are known for being potentially very nasty, that's not 'anti-science'.

beacon294 1y ago

The core principle of classic antibiotics is affecting the bacterial (prokaryotic) common ribosomal structure and not the eukaryotic ribosome, they are very diverged. That's not to say there couldn't be some unrelated effect, but that's why we test medicine.