Aim:
The aim of the study was to find out the role of auranofin as a promising broad spectrum antibacterial
agent.
Methods:
In-vitro assays (Percentage growth retardation, Bacterial growth kinetics, Biofilm formation assay) and In-silico
study (Molegro virtual docker (MVD) version 6.0 and Molecular operating environment (MOE) version 2008.10
software).
Results:
The in vitro assays have shown that auranofin has good antibacterial activity against Gram positive and Gram
negative bacterial strains. Further, auranofin has shown synergistic activity in combination with ampicillin against S.
aureus and B. subtilis whereas in combination with neomycin has just shown additive effect against E. coli, P. aeruginosa
and B. pumilus. In vivo results have revealed that auranofin alone and in combination with standard drugs significantly
decreased the bioburden in zebrafish infection model as compared to control. The molecular docking study have shown
good interaction of auranofin with penicillin binding protein (2Y2M), topoisomerase (3TTZ), UDP-3-O-[3-
hydroxymyristoyl] N-acetylglucosaminedeacetylase (3UHM), cell adhesion protein (4QRK), β-lactamase (5CTN) and
arylsulphatase (1HDH) enzyme as that of reference ligand which indicate multimodal mechanism of action of auranofin.
Finally, MTT assay has shown non-cytotoxic effect of auranofin.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, auranofin in combination with existing antibiotics could be developed as a broad spectrum
antibacterial agent; however, further studies are required to confirm its safety and efficacy. This study provides possibility
of use of auranofin apart from its established therapeutic indication in combination with existing antibiotics to tackle the
problem of resistance.
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