Effects of nutraceuticals on antibiotic efficacy: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Interaction between nutraceuticals and antibiotics has attracted increasing interest as a potential approach to improve antibiotic efficacy. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing literature on the effects of nutraceuticals on antibiotic efficacy. An information specialist executed a multi-database search following the PRISMA-2020 guidelines to find articles published between 1 January 2013, and 1 April 2023. The addition of nutraceuticals to antibiotic treatments has shown promising results, for urinary tract infections, the supplementation of vitamin E alongside antibiotics significantly reduced the frequency of fever and urinary symptoms. In patients with hidradenitis suppurativa, the combination of MI, folic acid, and liposomal magnesium improved the efficacy of concurrent therapies and metabolic profiles. Immune manipulation with a nutraceutical alongside antibiotics proved effective and safe in reducing symptoms over time. These findings highlight the potential of nutraceutical addition to antibiotics in improving patient outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutraceuticals
• antibiotic
• efficacy
• interaction
• nutrition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contributions

IYK and MI drafted the initial version of the report, designed, and implemented the literature search. EAW contributed to the review of abstracts and full texts. IYK, NH, and MI were responsible for analyses. All authors contributed to the interpretation of findings and revision of drafts and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

MDR: Multidrug-resistant; XDR: Extensively drug-resistant; PDR: Pan drug-resistant; PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses; PICOS: Population, intervention, comparator, outcomes, and study design; UTIs: Urinary tract infections; DMSA: Dimercaptosuccinic acid; MRSA: Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus; HS: Hidradenitis suppurativa; PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome; NTD: Neural tube defect; AML: Acute myeloid leukemia.