Synergy between immune system and antibiotics drives infection control in mice
Rajalekshmy G. Padmakumari, Ruchi Roy, Foyez Mahmud, Deepa Dehari, Getnet Tesfaw, Christi Thomas, Athena M. Soulika, Roslyn Rivkah Isseroff, Sasha H. Shafikhani · 2026
Read Synergy between immune system and antibiotics drives infection control in mice by Rajalekshmy G. Padmakumari, Ruchi Roy, Foyez Mahmud, Deepa Dehari, Getnet Tesfaw, Christi Thomas, Athena M. Soulika, Roslyn Rivkah Isseroff, Sasha H. Shafikhani (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12868242.txt.
Description
Rajalekshmy Padmakumari and eight co-authors show in mice that antibiotics and the immune system boost each other against infection, in a study from twenty twenty-six. The two defenses are usually treated as separate: drugs cut germ counts, and immunity mops up the rest. Models had predicted a true synergy, but it lacked direct proof.
In normal mice, an antibiotic's killing released germ parts that fired up local inflammation, which made the drug work better. The effect leaned heavily on one white cell type. Mice with weak immunity got no such boost and controlled infection poorly. Painting those germ parts onto the wound restored the boost in the weak mice. The authors suggest aiding immunity could help patients with weak defenses.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Rajalekshmy G. Padmakumari, Ruchi Roy, Foyez Mahmud, Deepa Dehari, Getnet Tesfaw, Christi Thomas, Athena M. Soulika, Roslyn Rivkah Isseroff, Sasha H. Shafikhani |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 36 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |