In the search for new antituberculosis drugs with novel mechanisms of action, we evaluated the antimycobacterial activity of a panel of eight phenolic acids against four pathogenic mycobacterial model species, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We demonstrated that salicylic acid (SA), as well as the iodinated derivatives 5-iodo-salicylic acid (5ISA) and 3,5-diiodo-salicylic acid (3,5diISA), displayed promising antitubercular activities. Remarkably, using a genetically encoded mycobacterial intrabacterial pH reporter, we describe for the first time that SA, 5ISA, 3,5diISA, and the anti-inflammatory drug aspirin (ASP) act by disrupting the intrabacterial pH homeostasis of M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rise of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacteria presents a grave challenge to global public health, with antimicrobial resistance ranking as the third leading cause of mortality worldwide. Understanding the mechanisms underlying antibiotic resistance is crucial for developing effective treatments. Efflux pumps, particularly those of the resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) superfamily, play a significant role in expelling molecules from bacterial cells, contributing to the emergence of multi-drug resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of new and effective antimicrobial compounds is urgent due to the emergence of resistant bacteria. Natural plant flavonoids are known to be effective molecules, but their activity and selectivity have to be increased. Based on previous aurone potency, we designed new aurone derivatives bearing acetamido and amino groups at the position 5 of the A ring and managing various monosubstitutions at the B ring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntibiotic resistance has increased the demand for novel treatments against multidrug-resistant microorganisms. In the research literature, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was proposed as an alternative due to its intrinsic antibacterial property. However, given its toxicity profile at high doses, its use in antibacterial therapy is dubious.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGram-negative bacteria were reported as a significant cause of infections in both community and nosocomial settings. Considered as one of the greatest threats to public health, the spread of bacteria drug resistance and the lack of effective alternative treatment options remains problematic. Herein, we report a promising strategy to combat Gram-negative resistant strains consisting of the combination of a macrolide antibiotic with a polyaminoisoprenyl adjuvant derivative leading to a significant decrease of antibiotic resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPseudomonas aeruginosa is intrinsically resistant to many antibiotics due to the impermeability of its outer membrane and to the constitutive expression of efflux pumps. Here, we show that the polyaminoisoprenyl compound NV716 at sub-MIC concentrations re-sensitizes P. aeruginosa to abandoned antibiotics by binding to the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of the outer membrane, permeabilizing this membrane and increasing antibiotic accumulation inside the bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotentiators can improve antibiotic activity against difficult-to-treat Gram-negative bacteria like Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae or Acinetobacter baumannii. They represent an appealing strategy in view of the paucity of therapeutic alternatives in case of multidrug resistance. Here, we examine the ability of the polyamino-isoprenyl compound NV716 to restore the activity of a series of disused antibiotics (rifampicin, azithromycin, linezolid, fusidic acid, novobiocin, chloramphenicol, and doxycycline, plus ciprofloxacin as an active drug) against these three species in planktonic cultures, but also in infected human monocytes and biofilms and we study its underlying mechanism of action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProsthetic implants are widely used in dentistry and orthopedics and, as a result, infections can occur which cause their removal. Therefore, it is essential to propose methods of eradicating the bacteria that remain on the prosthesis during treatment. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop surfaces whose antibacterial activity can be controlled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the search for an effective strategy to overcome antimicrobial resistance, a series of new morpholine-containing 5-arylideneimidazolones differing within either the amine moiety or at position five of imidazolones was explored as potential antibiotic adjuvants against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Compounds (-) were tested for oxacillin adjuvant properties in the Methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) strain ATCC 25923 and Methicillin-resistant MRSA 19449. Compounds - were tested additionally in combination with various antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProducing industrially significant compounds with more environmentally friendly represents a challenging task. The large-scale production of an exogenous molecule in a host microfactory can quickly cause toxic effects, forcing the cell to inhibit production to survive. The key point to counter these toxic effects is to promote a gain of tolerance in the host, for instance, by inducing a constant flux of the neo-synthetized compound out of the producing cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe growing number of multidrug resistant strains in Tunisia has become a serious health concern contributing to high rate of mortality and morbidity. Since current antibiotics are rapidly becoming ineffective, novel strategies to combat resistance are needed. Recently, we demonstrated that combination of a tetracycline antibiotic with various polyaminoisoprenyl adjuvants can sustain the life span and enhance the activity of these drugs against reference strain (PA01).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActive efflux confers intrinsic resistance to multiple antibiotics in , including old disused molecules. Beside resistance, intracellular survival is another reason for failure to eradicate bacteria with antibiotics. We evaluated the capacity of polyaminoisoprenyl potentiators (designed as efflux pump inhibitors [EPIs]) NV716 and NV731 compared to PAβN to restore the activity of disused antibiotics (doxycycline, chloramphenicol [substrates for efflux], and rifampin [nonsubstrate]) in comparison with ciprofloxacin against intracellular (strains with variable efflux levels) in THP-1 monocytes exposed over 24 h to antibiotics alone (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFToday, an alarming rise of bacterial gastroenteritis in humans resulting from consuming -tainted foods is being observed. One of the solutions for mitigating this issue may be the antibacterial activity of essential oils. In the present research, we propose to study the antibacterial activity against and other Gram-negative bacteria of essential oil and its active molecules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA series consisting of new polyaminoisoprenyl derivatives were prepared in moderate to good chemical yields varying from 32 to 64% according to two synthetic pathways: (1) using a titanium-reductive amination reaction affording a 50/50 mixture of cis and trans isomers and (2) a direct nucleophilic substitution leading to a stereoselective synthesis of the compounds of interest. These compounds were then successfully evaluated for their antibiotic enhancer properties against resistant Gram-negative bacteria of four antibiotics belonging to four different families. The mechanism of action against of one of the most efficient of these chemosensitizing agents was precisely evaluated by using fluorescent dyes to measure outer-membrane permeability and to determine membrane depolarization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmergence of antibioresistance is currently a major threat of public health worldwide. Hence there is an urge need of finding new antibacterial material. Herein, we report a simple and eco-friendly method to synthesize homo and heterodicationic ionic liquids based on quaternary phosphonium and ammonium salt.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe spreading of multidrug-resistant bacteria and the lack of novel antibiotic molecules leave clinicians and veterinarians with very limited options to treat bacterial infections, especially those caused by Gram-negative pathogens. To reduce the selection of antibiotic resistance mechanisms and their transfer to human pathogens, veterinary pharmaceutical companies have dramatically decreased the number of antibiotics used. Among all the investigated alternate solutions, chemosensitizers, which decrease the amount of the used drugs, appear to be one of the most promising strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The great emergence of multi-resistant bacterial strains and the low renewal of antibiotics molecules are leading human and veterinary medicine to certain therapeutic impasses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find new therapeutic alternatives including new molecules in the current treatments of infectious diseases. Methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP) is a promising target for developing new antibiotics because it is essential for bacterial survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntibiotic resistance is now a worldwide therapeutic problem. Since the beginning of anti-infectious treatment bacteria have rapidly shown an incredible ability to develop and transfer resistance mechanisms. In the last decades, the design variation of pioneer bioactive molecules has strongly improved their activity and the pharmaceutical companies partly won the race against the clock.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe gram-negative pathogen forms floating communities within which adjacent cells are in apparent contact, before depositing as canonical surface-attached biofilms. Because porins are the most abundant proteins in the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, we hypothesized that they could be involved in cell-to-cell contact and undertook a structure-function relationship study on the two porins of , Omp-Pst1 and Omp-Pst2. Our crystal structures reveal that these porins can self-associate through their extracellular loops, forming dimers of trimers (DOTs) that could enable cell-to-cell contact within floating communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and pathogens has created an urgent need for the development of new antibiotics. Herein we report our investigations into the broad-spectrum activity of an easily prepared water-soluble polyaminosterol compound, namely claramine A1, against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial strains. We also report its peculiar mechanism of action, which differs from that of all the other well-known classes of antibiotics, toward Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report the synthesis of new mono, di and tri phosphonium ionic liquids and the evaluation of their antibacterial activities on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria from the ESKAPE-group. Among the molecules synthesized some of them reveal a strong bactericidal activity (MIC = 0.5 mg/L) for Gram-positive bacteria (including resistant strains) comparable to that of standard antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we report on translocation of short poly-arginines across the MOMP porin, the major outer membrane protein in the cell wall of . MOMP was purified to homogeneity from a pathogenic strain of . Its reconstitution in lipid membranes and measuring the ion-current revealed two main distinct populations of protein channels which we interpreted as mono and trimers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiofilms are organized communities of bacterial cells that are responsible for the majority of human chronic bacterial infections. Providencia stuartii is a Gram-negative biofilm-forming bacterium involved in high incidence of urinary tract infections in catheterized patients. Yet, the structuration of these biofilms, and their resistance to environmental insults remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDihydromotuporamine C and its derivatives were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activities and antibiotic enhancement properties against Gram-negative bacteria and clinical isolates. The mechanism of action of one of these derivatives, MOTU-N44, was investigated against Enterobacter aerogenes by using fluorescent dyes to evaluate outer-membrane depolarization and permeabilization. Its efficiency correlated with inhibition of dye transport, thus suggesting that these molecules inhibit drug transporters by de-energization of the efflux pump rather than by direct interaction of the molecule with the pump.
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