Common dietary elements cure lethal infections, eliminating the need for antibiotics

Associate Professor Janelle Ayres found that giving mice dietary iron supplements enabled them to survive a normally lethal bacterial infection and resulted in later generations of those bacteria being less virulent. The approach demonstrated in preclinical studies that non-antibiotic-based strategies—such as nutritional interventions—can shift the relationship between the patient and the pathogens away from antagonism and toward cooperation.