Cranberry Juice Compounds Provide UTI Treatment Alternative

Compounds in cranberry juice may provide a viable alternative to antibiotics that treat Urinary Tract Infections (UTI's) especially for combating E. coli bacteria that have become resistant to conventional treatment.

The news comes as welcome relief for those that suffer from UTI's, which each year affect eight million people, mostly women, the elderly, and infants.  This results in $1.6bn in related healthcare costs.

Though they have suspected that compounds in the juice somehow prevent bacteria from adhering to the lining of the urinary tract, scientists have not yet understood exactly how cranberry juice prevents UTI's and other bacterial infections. These new findings reveal how the compounds interfere with adhesion at the molecular level.

The results of this new research by scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) demonstrated that a group of tannins called proanthocyanidins - found primarily in cranberries - affect E. coli in three ways, all of which prevent the bacteria from adhering to cells in the body, a necessary first step in all infections.

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