Effect and Mechanisms of Chinese Medicine and Its Active Ingredients in Enhancing Antibacterial Activities of Antibiotics： A Review
10.13422/j.cnki.syfjx.20250202
- VernacularTitle:中药及其活性成分促进抗生素抗菌的作用和机制研究进展
- Author:
Ling CHEN
1
;
Xueqin JIANG
2
;
Tao YUAN
1
;
Sufang KUANG
1
Author Information
1. Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs Research， School of Health， Jiangxi Normal University，Nanchang 330022，China
2. Department of Medicine，China National Intellectual Property Administration，Beijing 100088，China
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Chinese medicine active ingredients;
antibiotics;
bacterial antibiotic resistance;
enhancing bactericidal activity;
mechanism
- From:
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae
2025;31(11):305-313
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
With the increasing severity of bacterial antibiotic resistance， finding new ways to overcome this global challenge has become an urgent task. Chinese medicine， with abundant resources， offers potential for discovering diverse bioactive ingredients to enhance antibiotic efficacy and alleviate the crisis of bacterial antibiotic resistance. This review summarizes bacterial resistance mechanisms， prevention strategies， and the roles and mechanisms of Chinese medicine and its active ingredients in enhancing the efficacy of existing antibiotics. Two major resistance mechanisms—bacterial obstruction of antibiotic uptake and weakening of intracellular antibiotic activity—are introduced， with corresponding prevention and control strategies outlined. Based on the regulatory effects of active ingredients from Chinese medicine on bacteria， their mechanisms for enhancing antibiotic efficacy are categorized into two types， including improving the bacterial uptake of antibiotics and reducing the bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The former mainly enhances extracellular antibiotic uptake by regulating membrane permeability， biofilm formation， and metabolic pathways. The latter weakens intracellular antibiotic resistance by inhibiting efflux pumps and bacterial resistance targets. Furthermore， compound formulas of Chinese medicine， characterized by multi-component， multi-target， and multi-pathway interventions， exert similar antimicrobial effects and mechanisms with active ingredients， offering rich resources for developing antibiotic-enhancing applications. Finally， the review highlights the challenges such as insufficient structural research on active ingredients and potential druggability issues in their application for antibiotic enhancement. This will provide insights for advancing the research on Chinese active ingredients in antibiotic therapy and offers novel strategies to combat bacterial antibiotic resistance.
