Dominant Antibiotic Consumption Patterns Might Be Associated With the Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis in European Countries.

BACKGROUND/AIM: With a prevalence of 50-300 per 100,000 people, about 2.3 million people are estimated to live with multiple sclerosis (MS) globally. The role of antibiotics in the development, or prevention of MS is controversial. We aimed to elucidate the association between antibiotic consumption and MS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Pearson statistical comparisons were performed between the annual average antibiotic consumption patterns expressed in Defined Daily Dose/1,000 inhabitants/Day of the antibiotic consumption for the years of 1997-2018 in 30 European countries, with the respective prevalence of MS estimated for 2016. RESULTS: A positive correlation (promoting effect) has been observed between narrow spectrum penicillin (r=0.636) and tetracycline (r=0.412) consumption with MS prevalence. CONCLUSION: Countries, with high consumption of narrow spectrum penicillin and tetracycline, experience a higher prevalence of MS than other countries.

Antibiotic Consumption Patterns in European Countries May Be Associated with the Incidence of Major Carcinomas.

The possible role of the altered intestinal microbiome in the development of malignancies has been raised recently in several publications. Among external factors, antibiotics are considered to be the most important agent capable of producing dysbiosis in the gut flora, either temporally or permanently. The human microbiome has several beneficial effects in terms of maintaining appropriate human health, but its alteration has been implicated in the development of many illnesses. Our basic aim was to explore a possible relationship between the consumption of different antibiotic classes and the incidence of the most common cancer types (male, female) in European countries. A database of the average, yearly antibiotic consumption (1997-2018) has been developed and the consumption figures were compared to the eight, most frequent cancer incidence calculated for 2018 in 30 European countries. Pearson correlation has indicated different degrees of positive (supportive) and negative (inhibitor) significant associations between antibiotic consumption figures and cancer prevalence. It has been observed that certain antibiotic classes with positive correlation probably augment the incidence of certain cancer types, while others, with negative correlation, may show some inhibitory effect. The relatively higher or lower consumption pattern of different classes of antibiotics could be related to certain cancer prevalence figures in different European countries. Our results indicated that countries with relatively high consumption of narrow-spectrum penicillin (J01CE, J01CF) and tetracycline (J01A), like certain Scandinavian countries, showed a higher incidence of female colorectal cancer, female lung cancer, melanoma, breast, prostate and uterus corpus cancer. Countries with relatively higher consumption of broad-spectrum penicillin (J01CA, J01CR) and some broad-spectrum antibiotics (J01D, J01F, J01M), like Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, France, etc. showed a higher incidence rate of male lung cancer and male bladder cancer. The higher incidence rate of different cancer types showed association with the higher consumption of antibiotics with "augmenting" properties and with less consumption of antibiotics with "inhibitory" properties.