Antibiotics and immunity: effects of antibiotics on natural killer, antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity and antibody production.

We studied the effects of antibiotics on natural killer (NK), antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and immunoglobulin production. When human peripheral blood lymphocytes were incubated overnight with the antibiotic before the assay, nitrofurantoin significantly reduced NK but not ADCC activity. Nitrofurantoin also suppressed both spontaneous and interferon-enhanced NK activities in a dose-dependent fashion. Though it did not affect spontaneous ADCC activity, nitrofurantoin suppressed interferon enhancement of ADCC. Chloramphenicol significantly decreased the number of plaque forming cells in mice. In addition to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, rifampicin, cephalothin, polymyxin B and nitrofurantoin reduced mitogen-induced polycloned immunoglobulin synthesis. Results of this study may have clinical relevance, especially in treating immunocompromised patients.