Thaindian News

Washington, Oct 30 (IANS) Cranberry juice is far better than its extract in fighting a bio-film, formed by a resistant layer of bugs that spur infection, new research says.

The study explored mechanisms that the virulent form of E. coli bug, the primary cause of most urinary tract infections in people, uses to form bio-films.

“What we have shown is that cranberry juice’s ability to prevent bio-films is more complex than we may have originally thought,” said study co-author Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

“For a while, the field focused on these proanthocyanidins or PACs (a group of flavonoids found in cranberry extract), but the data shows that they aren’t the silver bullet,” added Camesano, the journal Food Science and Biotechnology reports.

The virulent form of E. coli is covered with small hair-like projections known as fimbriae that act like hooks and latch onto cells that line the urinary tract, according to a WPI statement.

When enough of the virulent bacteria adhere to cells, they form a bio-film and cause an infection.

Camesano’s team, which included graduate student Paola Andrea Pinzon-Arango and intern Kerrie Holguin, incubated two different strains of E. coli in the presence of two different mixtures of commercially available cranberry juice cocktail.

They also incubated the bacteria separately in the presence of PACs, but not juice.