Visiting lecturer discusses health benefits of cranberries

Perhaps a parent told you growing up to drink your cranberry juice because it was good for you. They may not have had a scientific method behind them, but scientists are proving that the advice to drink up when it comes to cranberry juice may have been very right.

“We’re talking about two of my favorite topics: cranberries and bacteria,” said Terri Camesano as she began her talk on the health benefits of cranberries at SUNYIT on October 7 as part of the President’s Lecture Series. “If you’ve never thought of those two things going together, after today, you’ll hopefully understand.”

Camesano, professor of chemical engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental engineering, and a B.S.in chemical engineering as well as a B.S. in environmental science.

More than 11 million patients are diagnosed with bladder infections each year and 250,000 are diagnosed with kidney infections, Camesano said, with those numbers adding up to eight million visits to the doctor annually that result in the prescription of antibiotics. However, the overuse of antibiotics is causing more bacteria to evolve and become resistant. With the development of new antibiotics dwindling in favor of drugs that would be needed by patients daily, the growing trend of antibiotic resistance is leading to the need for either more antibiotics, or alternative treatment.

The bacteria that causes more than 95 percent of urinary tract infections is a strain of E. Coli found in the lower intestine, which brings with it small appendages that look like little hairs. These fimbriae are actually appendages composed of proteins that allow the bacteria to attach to the surface of human cells. If it wasn’t for those fimbriae, urine would just flush the bacteria out of one’s system instead of quickly attaching and reproducing.

“The reason we get sick from bacteria is because the proteins of the bacteria attach to our cells,” Camesano said. According to research by Camesano and her team, cranberry juice has the ability to prevent the fimbriae from attaching to cells. The chemical (proanthocyanidin) is a chemical compound inside of the cranberries that acts like a block against the fimbriae, causing them to fall away and not attach.

“As you add more juice, the adhesion forces disappear,” Camesano said, adding that after years of research on the topic, she thinks that if the correct molecules found in the juice that are blocking the adhesion could be identified, a new product could be created to help fend off these bacteria. And that would be welcome news for millions of patients.