scholarly journals Investigation of Alternative Therapeutic and Biocidal Options to Combat Antifungal-Resistant Zoonotic Fungal Pathogens Isolated from Companion Animals

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-366
Author(s):  
Elaine Meade ◽  
Micheal Savage ◽  
Mark Slattery ◽  
Mary Garvey

Fungal skin infections and iatrogenic disease of companion animals continue to be an ongoing issue for veterinarians, where misdiagnosis or inapt medical treatment result in secondary conditions within animals. The widespread use of antifungals in both modern medicine and agriculture has resulted in concomitant resistance in species, where zoonotic transfer poses a risk to public health. Studies described herein assess the resistance of pathogenic species isolated from companion animals to a battery of conventional antimicrobial agents. Levels of resistance were detected using recognised in vitro methods, where additional novel therapeutic and biocide options were also extensively investigated. Results show high levels of resistance to the three main families of antifungal agents, namely caspofungin, Amp B and fluconazole. Resistance in Candida, Cryptococcal, Aspergillus and Trichophyton species is described herein, highlighting the need for defined species-specific antifungal breakpoints, and for Malassezia and Wickerhamomyces anomalus species which also have zoonotic potential. Novel compound phendione showed promising antimicrobial activity, with MICs determined for both fungal and bacterial species. The biocidal options investigated also showed potential to act as intermediate-level disinfectants, where peracetic acid proved most effective against fungal spore formers.

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
NGUYEN NGOC AN ◽  
HUA HUYNH MINH THAO ◽  
HO NGUYEN HOANG YEN ◽  
NGUYEN THI DIEU HANH ◽  
NGUYEN LE HIEN HOA ◽  
...  

Dragon fruit or pitahaya (Hylocereus spp.) are famous for their nutrient-rich favourable taste, which brings high economic value to subtropical and tropical countries. However, dragon fruit cultivation all over the world is threatened by fungal pathogens and among them, Neoscytalidium dimidiatum has recently been shown to be responsible for stem canker and fruit rot which cause big economic losses. In order to find an environmentally friendly way to control this pathogen, five out of sixty-nine bacterial isolates used in a screening test for antifungal activity were selected. All five strains appeared to be aerobic Gram positive spore forming bacteria suggesting that they all belong to the Bacillus genus. Cell-free culture supernatants of these strains were found to strongly inhibit both fungal spore germination and mycelia growth in vitro for at least 5 days. The strain D19 which possessed the highest antagonistic effect was further identified to be Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, a well-known species shown to have antifungal effect against several other pathogenic fungi. Thus, the results of this study opened a new promising perspective to prevent Neoscytalidium dimidiatum infection during cultivation of dragon fruit.


Antibiotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Antonelli ◽  
Luca Giovannini ◽  
Ilaria Baccani ◽  
Valentina Giuliani ◽  
Riccardo Pace ◽  
...  

The recent increase in infections mediated by drug-resistant bacterial and fungal pathogens underlines the urgent need for novel antimicrobial compounds. In this study, the antimicrobial activity (inhibitory and cidal) of HybenX®, a novel dessicating agent, in comparison with commonly used sodium hypochlorite and chlorhexidine, against a collection of bacterial and yeast strains representative of the most common human pathogenic species was evaluated. The minimal inhibitory, bactericidal, and fungicidal concentrations (MIC, MBC, and MFC, respectively) of the three different antimicrobial agents were evaluated by broth microdilution assays, followed by subculturing of suitable dilutions. HybenX® was active against 26 reference strains representative of staphylococci, enterococci, Enterobacterales, Gram-negative nonfermenters, and yeasts, although at higher concentrations than sodium hypochlorite and chlorhexidine. HybenX® MICs were 0.39% for bacteria (with MBCs ranging between 0.39% and 0.78%), and 0.1–0.78% for yeasts (with MFCs ranging between 0.78% and 1.6%). HybenX® exhibited potent inhibitory and cidal activity at low concentrations against several bacterial and yeast pathogens. These findings suggest that HybenX® could be of interest for the treatment of parodontal and endodontic infections and also for bacterial and fungal infections of other mucous membranes and skin as an alternative to sodium hypochlorite and chlorhexidine.


2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M Pearson ◽  
P David Rogers ◽  
John D Cleary ◽  
Stanley W Chapman

OBJECTIVE: To review the pharmacology, in vitro susceptibility, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, and adverse effects of voriconazole, a triazole antifungal agent. DATA SOURCES: A MEDLINE search, restricted to English language, was conducted from 1990 to June 2002. Supplementary sources included program abstracts from the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Diseases Society of America from 1996 to 2001 and manufacturer information available through the Food and Drug Administration's Web site. DATA EXTRACTION: All published and unpublished trials and abstracts citing voriconazole were selected. DATA SYNTHESIS: Voriconazole has shown in vitro activity against many yeasts and a variety of mold and dermatophyte isolates. Voriconazole can be administered either orally or parenterally. It exhibits good oral bioavailability, wide tissue distribution including distribution into the central nervous system, and hepatic metabolism. Drug interactions occur through inhibition of the CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4 isoenzymes, resulting in alterations in kinetic parameters of either voriconazole or the interacting agent. Efficacy has been illustrated in open, noncomparative studies of aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. Human case reports describe successful treatment of rare fungal pathogens. The most commonly reported adverse events include visual disturbances and elevations in liver function tests. CONCLUSIONS: Voriconazole is at least as effective as amphotericin B in the treatment of acute invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. It has similar efficacy as fluconazole in treatment of esophageal candidiasis. Voriconazole did not achieve statistical non-inferiority to liposomal amphotericin B for empirical therapy in patients with neutropenia and persistent fever, diminishing enthusiasm for use in this indication until additional trials are completed. Based on case reports and in vitro efficacy, voriconazole may prove to be a clinically useful agent in the treatment of other fungal disease.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 3349-3351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppantonio Maisetta ◽  
Giovanna Batoni ◽  
Semih Esin ◽  
Filippo Luperini ◽  
Manuela Pardini ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The in vitro activities of human β-defensin 3 (hBD-3) alone or combined with lysozyme, metronidazole, amoxicillin, and chlorhexidine were investigated with the oral bacteria Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, Streptococcus sobrinus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, and Porphyromonas gingivalis. hBD-3 showed bactericidal activity against all of the bacterial species tested. The bactericidal effect was enhanced when the peptide was used in combination with the antimicrobial agents mentioned above.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Krátký ◽  
Jarmila Vinšová ◽  
Vladimír Buchta

The resistance to antimicrobial agents brings a need of novel antimicrobial agents. We have synthesized and found thein vitroantibacterial activity of salicylanilide esters with benzoic acid (2-(phenylcarbamoyl)phenyl benzoates) in micromolar range. They were evaluatedin vitrofor the activity against eight fungal and eight bacterial species. All derivatives showed a significant antibacterial activity against Gram-positive strains with minimum inhibitory concentrations ≥0.98 μmol/L including methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureusstrain. The most active compounds were 5-chloro-2-(3,4-dichlorophenylcarbamoyl)phenyl benzoate and 4-chloro-2-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenylcarbamoyl)phenyl benzoate. The antifungal activity is significantly lower.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 367
Author(s):  
Joachim Pfister ◽  
Roland Bata ◽  
Isabella Hubmann ◽  
Anton Amadeus Hörmann ◽  
Fabio Gsaller ◽  
...  

Antifungal resistance of human fungal pathogens represents an increasing challenge in modern medicine. Short antimicrobial peptides (AMP) display a promising class of antifungals with a different mode of action, but lack target specificity and metabolic stability. In this study the hexapeptide PAF26 (Ac-dArg-dLys-dLys-dTrp-dPhe-dTrp-NH2) and the three amino acid long peptide NLF (H2N-Asn-Leu-dPhe-COOH) were coupled to diacetylfusarinine C (DAFC), a derivative of the siderophore triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC) of Aspergillus fumigatus, to achieve targeted delivery for treatment of invasive aspergillosis. Conjugated compounds in various modifications were labelled with radioactive gallium-68 to perform in vitro and in vivo characterizations. LogD, serum stability, uptake- growth promotion- and minimal inhibitory concentration assays were performed, as well as in vivo stability tests and biodistribution in BALB/c mice. Uptake and growth assays revealed specific internalization of the siderophore conjugates by A. fumigatus. They showed a high stability in human serum and also in the blood of BALB/c mice but metabolites in urine, probably due to degradation in the kidneys. Only PAF26 showed growth inhibition at 8 µg/ml which was lost after conjugation to DAFC. Despite their lacking antifungal activity conjugates based on a siderophore scaffold have a potential to provide the basis for a new class of antifungals, which allow the combination of imaging by using PET/CT with targeted treatment, thereby opening a theranostic approach for personalized therapy.


2002 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 772-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Krechel ◽  
Annekathrin Faupel ◽  
Johannes Hallmann ◽  
Andreas Ulrich ◽  
Gabriele Berg

To study the effect of microenvironments on potato-associated bacteria, the abundance and diversity of bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere, phyllosphere, endorhiza, and endosphere of field grown potato was analyzed. Culturable bacteria were obtained after plating on R2A medium. The endophytic populations averaged 103and 105CFU/g (fresh wt.) for the endosphere and endorhiza, respectively, which were lower than those for the ectophytic microenvironments, with 105and 107CFU/g (fresh wt.) for the phyllosphere and rhizosphere, respectively. The composition and richness of bacterial species was microenvironment-dependent. The occurrence and diversity of potato-associated bacteria was additionally monitored by a cultivation-independent approach using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S rDNA. The patterns obtained revealed a high heterogeneity of community composition and suggested the existence of microenvironment-specific communities. In an approach to measure the antagonistic potential of potato-associated bacteria, a total of 440 bacteria was screened by dual testing for in vitro antagonism towards the soilborne pathogens Verticillium dahliae and Rhizoctonia solani. The proportion of isolates with antagonistic activity was highest for the rhizosphere (10%), followed by the endorhiza (9%), phyllosphere (6%), and endosphere (5%). All 33 fungal antagonists were characterized by testing their in vitro antagonistic mechanisms, including their glucanolytic, chitinolytic, pectinolytic, cellulolytic, and proteolytic activity, and by their BOX-PCR fingerprints. In addition, they were screened for their biocontrol activity against Meloidogyne incognita. Overall, nine isolates belonging to Pseudomonas and Streptomyces species were found to control both fungal pathogens and M. incognita and were therefore considered as promising biological control agents. Key words: biocontrol, antagonistic potential, plant-associated bacteria.


2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1468-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Fritsche ◽  
Helio S. Sader ◽  
Roy Cleeland ◽  
Ronald N. Jones

ABSTRACT LBM415 (NVP PDF-713) is the first member of the peptide deformylase (PDF) inhibitor class being developed for clinical trials as a parenteral and oral agent for treatment of community-acquired respiratory tract disease and serious infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant gram-positive cocci. In this study susceptibility testing results from 1,306 recent clinical isolates selected to overrepresent resistance trends among the species were summarized. All staphylococci (153 strains; MIC at which 90% of isolates were inhibited [MIC90], 2 μg/ml), Streptococcus pneumoniae (170 strains; MIC90, 1 μg/ml), other streptococci (150 strains; MIC90, 1 μg/ml), enterococci (104 strains; MIC90, 4 μg/ml), Moraxella catarrhalis (103 strains; MIC90, 0.5 μg/ml), and Legionella pneumophila (50 strains; MIC90, 0.12 μg/ml) were inhibited at ≤8 μg of LBM415/ml, as were 97% of Haemophilus influenzae isolates (300 strains; MIC90, 4 to 8 μg/ml). Among other bacterial groups, 100% of gram-positive and -negative anaerobes, including 22 Bacteroides spp. strains (31 strains total; MIC90, 1 μg/ml), were inhibited by ≤4 μg/ml, whereas Enterobacteriaceae (112 strains) and most nonfermentative bacilli (107 strains) were not inhibited at readily achievable concentrations. The compound was found to have a dominantly bacteriostatic action, and spontaneous single-step mutational rates occurred at low levels (10−6 to <10−8). Drug interaction studies failed to identify any class-specific synergistic interactions, nor were antagonistic interactions observed. Variations in broth and agar MIC test conditions demonstrated that, whereas the agar-based method trended towards a 1-log2 dilution-higher MIC than the broth method and was inoculum dependent, other variations in incubation environment, medium supplements, pH, or calcium concentration had little influence on LBM415 MIC results. Use of the efflux inhibitor phe-arg-β-naphthylamide showed an average of 1 log2 dilution decrease in H. influenzae MICs, demonstrating the contribution of efflux pumps in influencing susceptibility to PDF inhibitors. The in vitro activity of LBM415 against targeted bacterial species, including resistant subsets, and other laboratory characteristics of this novel compound demonstrate the potential of PDF inhibitors as a new class of antimicrobial agents.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilla Ördögh ◽  
Andrea Vörös ◽  
István Nagy ◽  
Éva Kondorosi ◽  
Attila Kereszt

The increasing number of multidrug-resistant microbes now emerging necessitates the identification of novel antimicrobial agents. Plants produce a great variety of antimicrobial peptides including hundreds of small, nodule-specific cysteine-rich NCR peptides that, in the legumeMedicago truncatula, govern the differentiation of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria and,in vitro, can display potent antibacterial activities. In this study, the potential candidacidal activity of 19 NCR peptides was investigated. Cationic NCR peptides having an isoelectric point above 9 were efficient in killingCandida albicans, one of the most common fungal pathogens of humans. None of the tested NCR peptides were toxic for immortalized human epithelial cells at concentrations that effectively killed the fungus; however, at higher concentrations, some of them inhibited the division of the cells. Furthermore, the cationic peptides successfully inhibitedC. albicansinduced human epithelial cell death in anin vitrococulture model. These results highlight the therapeutic potential of cationic NCR peptides in the treatment of candidiasis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Amna Ali ◽  
M Saleem Haider ◽  
Sobia Mushtaq ◽  
Ibatsam Khokhar ◽  
Irum Mukhtar ◽  
...  

The antimicrobial agents of bacteria isolated from different rhizosphere of fruits and vegetables soil in Lahore. Of ten species, five were gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescence, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella typhii, Brachybacterium faecium); other five were gram positive and identified as Bacillus farraginis, Kurthia gibsonii, Aureobacterium liquefaciens, Curtobacterium albidum, Micrococcus lylae. The antagonistic potential of bacterial strains was assessed by the well diffusion technique and results indicating varying degree of biocontrol activity against pathogenic strain of X. campestris. Out of ten bacterial species, E. coli (gram negative) and C. albidum (gram positive) showed a high prevalence of resistance with reduction of 4.2cm and 4.1cm zone diameter respectively. The minimum inhibitory volume (MIV) to two bio-agents was determined for X. campestris from range 10-100 ?L. E. coli (volume required to inhibit < 20 ?L) and C. albidum (volume required to inhibit < 40 ?L) exhibited good activity against pathogen. These results provide information on the prevalence of resistant bacterial strains with the MIV of organisms and indicate the possibility of using these bacterial species as bio-agent against X. campestris.Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 29, Number 1, June 2012, pp 37-40


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document