The research team tested thioridazine on staphylococcal bacteria and discovered that thioridazine works by weakening the bacterial cell wall.
"When we treat the bacteria with antibiotics alone, nothing happens - the bacteria are not even affected. But when we add both thioridazine and antibiotics, something happens: thioridazine weakens the bacterial cell wall by removing glycine (an amino acid) from the cell wall. In the absence of glycine, the antibiotics can attack the weakened cell wall and kill
staphylococcus bacteria", explains Janne Kudsk Klitgaard, visiting scholar at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark.
Thus, it is the interaction between thioridazine and antibiotic that works.
And now that researchers know that thioridazine works by weakening
staphylococcal cell wall, they can concentrate on improving this ability.
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