Susceptibility of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria, Isolated from Water and Plants in Nigeria, to Ceragenins

Marjan M. Hashemi, Augusta O. Mmuoegbulam, Brett S. Holden, Jordan Coburn, John Wilson, Maddison F. Taylor, Joseph Reiley, Darius Baradaran, Tania Stenquist, Shenglou Deng and Paul B. Savage
Additional contact information
Marjan M. Hashemi: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Augusta O. Mmuoegbulam: Department of Microbiology, University of Calabar, Calabar PMB 1115, Nigeria
Brett S. Holden: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Jordan Coburn: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
John Wilson: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Maddison F. Taylor: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Joseph Reiley: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Darius Baradaran: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Tania Stenquist: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Shenglou Deng: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Paul B. Savage: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: The continuous emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens is a major global health concern. Although antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have shown promise as a possible means of combatting multidrug resistant strains without readily engendering resistance, costs of production and targeting by proteases limit their utility. Ceragenins are non-peptide AMP mimics that overcome these shortcomings while retaining broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. To further characterize the antibacterial activities of ceragenins, their activities against a collection of environmental isolates of bacteria were determined. These isolates were isolated in Nigeria from plants and water. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of selected ceragenins and currently available antimicrobials against these isolates were measured to determine resistance patterns. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we examined the morphological changes in bacterial membranes following treatment with ceragenins. Finally, we investigated the effectiveness of ceragenins in inhibiting biofilm formation and destroying established biofilms. We found that, despite high resistance to many currently available antimicrobials, including colistin, environmental isolates in planktonic and biofilm forms remain susceptible to ceragenins. Additionally, SEM and confocal images of ceragenin-treated cells confirmed the effective antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of ceragenins.

Keywords: ceragenin; multidrug-resistant bacteria; biofilm; antimicrobial peptides; colistin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2758/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2758/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2758-:d:188373

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().