Effects of subinhibitory concentrations of clindamycin on the morphological, biochemical and genetic characteristics ofBacteroides fragilis

Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Approaches of Antimicrobial Agents for Selective Delivery in Various Administration Routes

Globally, the increase of pathogenic bacteria with antibiotic-resistant characteristics has become a critical challenge in medical treatment. The misuse of conventional antibiotics to treat an infectious disease often results in increased resistance and a scarcity of effective antimicrobials to be used in the future against the organisms. Here, we discuss the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the need to combat it through the discovery of new synthetic or naturally occurring antibacterial compounds, as well as insights into the application of various drug delivery approaches delivered via various routes compared to conventional delivery systems. AMR-related infectious diseases are also discussed, as is the efficiency of various delivery systems. Future considerations in developing highly effective antimicrobial delivery devices to address antibiotic resistance are also presented here, especially on the smart delivery system of antibiotics.

Acute Bacterial Meningitis: Challenges to Better Antibiotic Therapy

Bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency requiring highly bactericidal antibiotics to achieve cure. Many challenges exist to achieving optimal patient outcome. First, antibiotics must pass the blood brain barrier. Once in the subarachnoid space, achieving bactericidal therapy involves circumventing antibiotic resistance and, more commonly, antibiotic tolerance arising from the slow growth of bacteria in the nutrient poor cerebrospinal fluid. Finally, bactericidal therapy is most often bacteriolytic, and debris from lysis is highly inflammatory. Controlling damage from lytic products may require adjunctive therapy to prevent neuronal death. These challenges are an extreme example of the different requirements for treating infections in different body sites.

Sub-Inhibitory Concentration of Piperacillin-Tazobactam May be Related to Virulence Properties of Filamentous Escherichia coli

Sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics are always generated as a consequence of antimicrobial therapy and the effects of such residual products in bacterial morphology are well documented, especially the filamentation generated by beta-lactams. The aim of this study was to investigate some morphological and pathological aspects (virulence factors) of Escherichia coli cultivated under half-minimum inhibitory concentration (1.0 µg/mL) of piperacillin-tazobactam (PTZ sub-MIC). PTZ sub-MIC promoted noticeable changes in the bacterial cells which reach the peak of morphological alterations (filamentation) and complexity at 16 h of antimicrobial exposure. Thereafter the filamentous cells and a control one, not treated with PTZ, were comparatively tested for growth curve; biochemical profile; oxidative stress tolerance; biofilm production and cell hydrophobicity; motility and pathogenicity in vivo. PTZ sub-MIC attenuated the E. coli growth rate, but without changes in carbohydrate fermentation or in traditional biochemical tests. Overall, the treatment of E. coli with sub-MIC of PTZ generated filamentous forms which were accompanied by the inhibition of virulence factors such as the oxidative stress response, biofilm formation, cell surface hydrophobicity, and motility. These results are consistent with the reduced pathogenicity observed for the filamentous E. coli in the murine model of intra-abdominal infection. In other words, the treatment of E. coli with sub-MIC of PTZ suggests a decrease in their virulence.

The world of subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations

Although antibiotics have long been known to have multiple effects on bacterial cells at low concentrations, it is only with the advent of genome transcription analyses that these activities have been studied in detail at the level of cell metabolism. It has been shown that all antibiotics, regardless of their receptors and mode of action, exhibit the phenomenon of hormesis and provoke considerable transcription activation at low concentrations. These analyses should be of value in providing information on antibiotic side-effects, in bioactive natural product discovery and antibiotic mode-of-action studies.