scholarly journals Basigin is a druggable target for host-oriented antimalarial interventions

2015 ◽  
Vol 212 (8) ◽  
pp. 1145-1151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zenon A. Zenonos ◽  
Sara K. Dummler ◽  
Nicole Müller-Sienerth ◽  
Jianzhu Chen ◽  
Peter R. Preiser ◽  
...  

Plasmodium falciparum is the parasite responsible for the most lethal form of malaria, an infectious disease that causes a large proportion of childhood deaths and poses a significant barrier to socioeconomic development in many countries. Although antimalarial drugs exist, the repeated emergence and spread of drug-resistant parasites limit their useful lifespan. An alternative strategy that could limit the evolution of drug-resistant parasites is to target host factors that are essential and universally required for parasite growth. Host-targeted therapeutics have been successfully applied in other infectious diseases but have never been attempted for malaria. Here, we report the development of a recombinant chimeric antibody (Ab-1) against basigin, an erythrocyte receptor necessary for parasite invasion as a putative antimalarial therapeutic. Ab-1 inhibited the PfRH5-basigin interaction and potently blocked erythrocyte invasion by all parasite strains tested. Importantly, Ab-1 rapidly cleared an established P. falciparum blood-stage infection with no overt toxicity in an in vivo infection model. Collectively, our data demonstrate that antibodies or other therapeutics targeting host basigin could be an effective treatment for patients infected with multi-drug resistant P. falciparum.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Gaurav ◽  
Varsha Gupta ◽  
Sandeep K. Shrivastava ◽  
Ranjana Pathania

AbstractThe increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance has become a global health problem. Acinetobacter baumannii is an important nosocomial pathogen due to its capacity to persist in the hospital environment. It has a high mortality rate and few treatment options. Antibiotic combinations can help to fight multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections, but they are rarely used in the clinics and mostly unexplored. The interaction between bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotics are mostly reported as antagonism based on the results obtained in the susceptible model laboratory strain Escherichia coli. However, in the present study, we report a synergistic interaction between nalidixic acid and tetracycline against clinical multi-drug resistant A. baumannii and E. coli. Here we provide mechanistic insight into this dichotomy. The synergistic combination was studied by checkerboard assay and time-kill curve analysis. We also elucidate the mechanism behind this synergy using several techniques such as fluorescence spectroscopy, flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, morphometric analysis, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. Nalidixic acid and tetracycline combination displayed synergy against most of the MDR clinical isolates of A. baumannii and E. coli but not against susceptible isolates. Finally, we demonstrate that this combination is also effective in vivo in an A. baumannii/Caenorhabditis elegans infection model (p < 0.001)


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristie L. Connolly ◽  
Ann E. Eakin ◽  
Carolina Gomez ◽  
Blaire L. Osborn ◽  
Magnus Unemo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThere is a pressing need for drug development for gonorrhea. Here we describe a pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) analysis of extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC) against drug-susceptible and drug-resistant gonococcal strains in a murine genital tract infection model. The PK determined in uninfected mice displayed a clear dose-response in plasma levels following single doses of ceftriaxone (CRO) (intraperitoneal) or cefixime (CFM) (oral). The observed doses required for efficacy against ESC-susceptible (ESCs) strain FA1090 were 5 mg/kg of body weight (CRO) and 12 mg/kg (CFM); these doses had estimated therapeutic times (the time that the free drug concentration remains above the MIC [fTMIC]) of 24 h and 37 h, respectively. No single dose of CRO or CFM was effective against ESC-resistant (ESCr) strain H041. However, fractionation (three times a day every 8 h [TIDq8h]) of a 120-mg/kg dose of CRO resulted in estimated therapeutic times in the range of 23 h and cleared H041 infection in a majority (90%) of mice, comparable to the findings for gentamicin. In contrast, multiple CFM doses of 120 or 300 mg/kg administered TIDq8h cleared infection in ≤50% of mice, with the therapeutic times estimated from single-dose PK data being 13 and 27 h, respectively. This study reveals a clear relationship between plasma ESC levels and bacterial clearance rates in the gonorrhea mouse model. The PK/PD relationships observed in mice reflected those observed in humans, within vivoefficacy against an ESCsstrain requiring doses that yielded anfTMICin excess of 20 to 24 h. PK data also accurately predicted the failure of single doses of ESCs against an ESCrstrain and were useful in designing effective dosing regimens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Jangra ◽  
Manpreet Kaur ◽  
Rushikesh Tambat ◽  
Rohit Rana ◽  
Sushil K. Maurya ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe World Health Organization has categorized the Gram-negative superbugs, which are inherently impervious to many antibiotics, as critical priority pathogens due to the lack of effective treatments. The breach in our last-resort antibiotic (i.e., colistin) by extensively drug-resistant and pan-drug-resistantEnterobacteriaceaestrains demands the immediate development of new therapies. In the present study, we report the discovery of tridecaptin M, a new addition to the family, and its potential against colistin-resistantEnterobacteriaceae in vitroandin vivo. Also, we performed mode-of-action studies using various fluorescent probes and studied the hemolytic activity and mammalian cytotoxicity in two cell lines. Tridecaptin M displayed strong antibacterial activity (MICs of 2 to 8 μg ml−1) against clinical strains ofKlebsiella pneumoniae(which were resistant to colistin, carbapenems, third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, fosfomycin, and other antibiotics) andmcr-1-positiveEscherichia colistrains. Unlike polymyxins, tridecaptin M did not permeabilize the outer membrane or cytoplasmic membrane. It blocked ATP synthesis in bacteria by dissipating the proton motive force. The compound exhibited negligible acquired resistance, lowin vitrocytotoxicity and hemolytic activity, and no significant acute toxicity in mice. It also showed promising efficacy in a thigh infection model of colistin-resistantK. pneumoniae. Altogether, these results demonstrate the future prospects of this class of antibiotics to address the unmet medical need to circumvent colistin resistance in extensively drug-resistantEnterobacteriaceaeinfections. The work also emphasizes the importance of natural products in our shrunken drug discovery pipeline.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingquan Chen ◽  
Marleini Ilanga ◽  
Sabona B Simbassa ◽  
Bhagath Chirra ◽  
Kush N Shah ◽  
...  

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a common fatal genetic disease caused by mutations happened to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Lungs of CF patients are often colonized or infected with microorganisms. Drug resistant bacterial infection has been problematic in cystic fibrosis patient. The chronic bacterial infections and concomitant airway inflammation could damage the lung and lead to respiratory failure. Several clinical trials have demonstrated that high-dose ibuprofen reduces the rate of pulmonary function decline in CF patients. This beneficial effect has been attributed to the anti-inflammatory properties of ibuprofen. Previously, we have confirmed that high-dose ibuprofen demonstrated antimicrobial activity against P. aeruginosa in in vitro and in vivo. However, no study has examined the antimicrobial effect of combining ibuprofen with standard-of-care (SoC) antimicrobials. Here, we evaluated possible synergistic activity of combinations of common nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), namely, aspirin, naproxen, and ibuprofen, with commonly used antibiotics for CF patients. The drug combinations were screened against different CF clinical isolates. Drugs that demonstrated efficacy in the presence of ibuprofen were further verified synergistic effects between these antimicrobials and NSAIDs. Finally, the survival analysis of an P. aeruginosa murine infection model was used to demonstrate the efficacy of synergistic combination. Our results suggest that combinations of ibuprofen with commonly used antibiotics demonstrate synergistic antimicrobial activity against drug resistant, clinical bacterial strains in in vitro. The efficacy of combination ceftazidime and ibuprofen was demonstrated in in vivo.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu-Yan Su ◽  
Guang-Hui Ni ◽  
Yi-Chuan Liao ◽  
Liu-Qing Su ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
...  

The increased resistance of Candida albicans to conventional antifungal drugs poses a huge challenge to the clinical treatment of this infection. In recent years, combination therapy, a potential treatment method to overcome C. albicans resistance, has gained traction. This study assessed the effect of 6,7,4′-O-triacetylscutellarein (TA) combined with fluconazole (FLC) on C. albicans in vitro and in vivo. TA combined with FLC showed good synergistic antifungal activity against drug-resistant C. albicans in vitro, with a partial inhibitory concentration index (FICI) of 0.0188–0.1800. In addition, the time-kill curve confirmed the synergistic effect of TA and FLC. TA combined with FLC showed a strong synergistic inhibitory effect on the biofilm formation of resistant C. albicans. The combined antifungal efficacy of TA and FLC was evaluated in vivo in a mouse systemic fungal infection model. TA combined with FLC prolonged the survival rate of mice infected with drug-resistant C. albicans and reduced tissue invasion. TA combined with FLC also significantly inhibited the yeast-hypha conversion of C. albicans and significantly reduced the expression of RAS-cAMP-PKA signaling pathway-related genes (RAS1 and EFG1) and hyphal-related genes (HWP1 and ECE1). Furthermore, the mycelium growth on TA combined with the FLC group recovered after adding exogenous db-cAMP. Collectively, these results show that TA combined with FLC inhibits the formation of hyphae and biofilms through the RAS-cAMP-PKA signaling pathway, resulting in reduced infectivity and resistance of C. albicans. Therefore, this study provides a basis for the treatment of drug-resistant C. albicans infections.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 3309-3317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-An Li ◽  
Wen-Hui Lee ◽  
Yun Zhang

ABSTRACTAntimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been considered alternatives to conventional antibiotics for drug-resistant bacterial infections. However, their comparatively high toxicity toward eukaryotic cells and poor efficacyin vivohamper their clinical application. OH-CATH30, a novel cathelicidin peptide deduced from the king cobra, possesses potent antibacterial activityin vitro. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of OH-CATH30 and its analog OH-CM6 against drug-resistant bacteriain vitroandin vivo. The MICs of OH-CATH30 and OH-CM6 ranged from 1.56 to 12.5 μg/ml against drug-resistant clinical isolates of several pathogenic species, includingEscherichia coli,Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus. The MICs of OH-CATH30 and OH-CM6 were slightly altered in the presence of 25% human serum. OH-CATH30 and OH-CM6 killedE. coliquickly (within 60 min) by disrupting the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. Importantly, the 50% lethal doses (LD50) of OH-CATH30 and OH-CM6 in mice following intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection were 120 mg/kg of body weight and 100 mg/kg, respectively, and no death was observed at any dose up to 160 mg/kg following subcutaneous (s.c.) injection. Moreover, 10 mg/kg OH-CATH30 or OH-CM6 significantly decreased the bacterial counts as well as the inflammatory response in a mouse thigh infection model and rescued infected mice in a bacteremia model induced by drug-resistantE. coli. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the natural cathelicidin peptide OH-CATH30 and its analogs exhibit relatively low toxicity and potent efficacy in mouse models, indicating that they may have therapeutic potential against the systemic infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (521) ◽  
pp. eaav1636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca E. K. Mandt ◽  
Maria Jose Lafuente-Monasterio ◽  
Tomoyo Sakata-Kato ◽  
Madeline R. Luth ◽  
Delfina Segura ◽  
...  

Resistance has developed in Plasmodium malaria parasites to every antimalarial drug in clinical use, prompting the need to characterize the pathways mediating resistance. Here, we report a framework for assessing development of resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to new antimalarial therapeutics. We investigated development of resistance by P. falciparum to the dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) inhibitors DSM265 and DSM267 in tissue culture and in a mouse model of P. falciparum infection. We found that resistance to these drugs arose rapidly both in vitro and in vivo. We identified 13 point mutations mediating resistance in the parasite DHODH in vitro that overlapped with the DHODH mutations that arose in the mouse infection model. Mutations in DHODH conferred increased resistance (ranging from 2- to ~400-fold) to DHODH inhibitors in P. falciparum in vitro and in vivo. We further demonstrated that the drug-resistant parasites carrying the C276Y mutation had mitochondrial energetics comparable to the wild-type parasite and also retained their fitness in competitive growth experiments. Our data suggest that in vitro selection of drug-resistant P. falciparum can predict development of resistance in a mouse model of malaria infection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shichun Lun ◽  
Rokeya Tasneen ◽  
Tridib Chaira ◽  
Jozef Stec ◽  
Oluseye K. Onajole ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Indole-2-carboxamide derivatives are inhibitors of MmpL3, the cell wall-associated mycolic acid transporter of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the present study, we characterized indoleamide effects on bacterial cell morphology and reevaluated pharmacokinetics and in vivo efficacy using an optimized oral formulation. Morphologically, indoleamide-treated M. tuberculosis cells demonstrated significantly higher numbers of dimples near the poles or septum, which may serve as the mechanism of cell death for this bactericidal scaffold. Using the optimized formulation, an expanded-spectrum indoleamide, compound 2, showed significantly improved pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters and in vivo efficacy in mouse infection models. In a comparative study, compound 2 showed superior efficacy over compound 3 (NITD-304) in a high-dose aerosol mouse infection model. Since indoleamides are equally active on drug-resistant M. tuberculosis, these findings demonstrate the therapeutic potential of this novel scaffold for the treatment of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Komal Umashankar Rao ◽  
Domhnall Iain Henderson ◽  
Nitya Krishnan ◽  
Manoj Puthia ◽  
Izabela Glegola-Madejska ◽  
...  

AbstractAlternative ways to prevent and treat infectious diseases are needed. Previously, we identified a fungal peptide, NZX, that was comparable to rifampicin in lowering M. tuberculosis load in a murine tuberculosis (TB) infection model. Here we assessed the potential synergy between this cationic host defence peptide (CHDP) and the current TB drugs and analysed its pharmacokinetics. We found additive effect of this peptide with isoniazid and ethambutol and confirmed these results with ethambutol in a murine TB-model. In vivo, the peptide remained stable in circulation and preserved lung structure better than ethambutol alone. Antibiotic resistance studies did not induce mutants with reduced susceptibility to the peptide. We further observed that this peptide was effective against nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), such as M. avium and M. abscessus, and several Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In conclusion, the presented data supports a role for this CHDP in the treatment of drug resistant organisms.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niranjana Sri Sundaramoor ◽  
Subramanian Thothathri ◽  
Muthu Meenakshi Bhaskaran ◽  
ArunKumar GaneshPrasad ◽  
Saisubramanian Nagarajan

Abstract Bacteriophages are a promising alternative for curtailing infections caused by multi drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. The objective of the present study is to evaluate phage populations from water bodies to inhibit planktonic and biofilm mode of growth of drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in vitro and curtail planktonic growth in vivo in a zebrafish model. Phage specific to K. pneumoniae (MTCC 432) was isolated from Ganges river (designated as KpG). One-step growth curve, in vitro time kill curve study and in vivo infection model were performed to evaluate the efficacy of phage to curtail planktonic growth. Crystal violet assay and colony biofilm assay was done to determine the action of phages on biofilms. KpG phages had a greater burst size, better bactericidal potential and enhanced inhibitory effect against biofilms formed at liquid air and solid air interfaces. In vivo injection of KpG phages revealed that it did not pose any toxicity to zebrafish as evidenced by liver/brain enzyme profiles and by histopathological analysis. In vitro time kill assay showed a 3 log decline and a 6 log decline in K. pneumoniae colony counts, when phages were administered individually and in combination with streptomycin, respectively. The muscle tissue of zebrafish, infected with K. pneumoniae and treated with KpG phages showed a significant 2 log decline in bacterial counts relative to untreated control. Our study reveals that KpG phages has the potential to curtail plantonic and biofilm mode of growth in vivo in higher animal models.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document