Introduction. Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the mostserious public health problems affecting both men and women, but women are more susceptible due to differences in urogenital and reproductive anatomy, physiology and lifestyle.
Materials and methods. The current review article was aimed at describing promising therapeutic strategies for the treatment and prevention of UTI. Forthis purpose, various databases were investigated, includingGoogle Scholar, the Cochrane database, PubMed, etc.The search wasconducted forthe keywords «prevention», «recurrent urinary tract infections», «D-mannose», «proanthocyanidins», «arbutin».
Results. It was found that microbial infectious agents, including Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, and Klebsiella, are the main causative agents of UTI with various signs and symptoms, including painful urination or dysuria, hematuria, urgency, burning sensation during urination, frequent urination, nausea, and vomiting. Antibiotics such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, fluoroquinolones, nitrofurans, etc. are still used worldwide as firstline drugsin the treatment and long-term prevention ofrecurrent UTIs. However, due to microbialresistance,several life-threatening side effects, multiple high doses and low efficacy of these antibiotics,researchers have been prompted to investigate othertreatments forthe treatment and prevention of UTI. Natural complex preparations are effective in combating bacterial resistance with proven high efficacy and easy availability with minimal or no side effects. D-mannose, oligomeric proanthocyanidins and arbutin from bearberry extract are the most promising drugs with therapeutic potential for the treatment and prevention of UTI.
Conclusion. Forthe treatment and prevention of UTI, some herbal preparations as well as other moleculescan be offered, which in some cases turn out to be the best therapeutic and prophylactic agent and are often considered as the best option for long-term prophylaxis.
Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
