Abstract
Background: Trueperella pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are two important bacterial pathogens closely relating to the occurrence and development of forest musk deer respiratory purulent disease. Although T. pyogenes is the causative agent of the disease, the subsequently invaded P. aeruginosa will predominate the infection by producing a substantial amount of quorum-sensing (QS)-controlled virulence factors, and co-infection of them usually creates serious difficulties for veterinary treatment. In order to find a potential drug that targets both T. pyogenes and P. aeruginosa, the antibacterial and anti-virulence capacities of 55 compounds, which have similar core structure to the signal molecules of P. aeruginosa QS system, were tested in this study. By performing a series of in vitro screening experiments to assess the effects of these compounds.Results: We identified that furazolidone could significantly inhibit the growth of mono-cultured T. pyogenes or in the co-culture with P. aeruginosa. Although the growth of P. aeruginosa could also be moderately inhibited by furazolidone, the results of phenotypic identification and transcriptomic analysis further revealed that furazolidone had remarkable inhibitory effect on the biofilm production, motility, and QS system of P. aeruginosa. Moreover, furazolidone could efficiently protect Caenorhabditis elegans from P. aeruginosa infection under both fast-killing and slow-killing conditions.Conclusions: This study reports the antibacterial and anti-virulence abilities of furazolidone on T. pyogenes and P. aeruginosa, and provides a promising strategy and molecular basis for the development of novel anti-infectious drugs to dealing with forest musk deer purulent disease, or other diseases caused by T. pyogenes and P. aeruginosa co-infection.
Validation of the anti-infective potential of a polyherbal ‘Panchvalkal’ preparation, and elucidation of the molecular basis underlining its efficacy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
