Synergistic activity of repurposed peptide drug glatiramer acetate with tobramycin against cystic fibrosis Pseudomonas aeruginosa
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common pathogen infecting the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF), causing both acute and chronic infections. Intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance, coupled with the physical barriers resulting from desiccated CF sputum, allow P. aeruginosa to colonize and persist in spite of antibiotic treatment. As well as the specific difficulties in eradicating P. aeruginosa from CF lungs, P. aeruginosa is also subject to the wider, global issue of antimicrobial resistance. Glatiramer acetate (GA) is a peptide drug, used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), which has been shown to have moderate antipseudomonal activity. Other antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been shown to be antibiotic resistance breakers, potentiating the activities of antibiotics when given in combination, restoring and/or enhancing antibiotic efficacy. Growth, viability, MIC determinations, and synergy analysis showed that GA improved the efficacy of tobramycin (TOB) against reference strains of P. aeruginosa, reducing TOB MICs and synergizing with the aminoglycoside. This was also the case for clinical strains from people with CF. GA significantly reduced the MIC50 of TOB for viable cells from 1.69 mg/L (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26 to 8.97) to 0.62 mg/L (95% CI, 0.15 to 3.94; P = 0.002) and the MIC90 for viable cells from 7.00 mg/L (95% CI, 1.18 to 26.50) to 2.20 mg/L (95% CI, 0.99 to 15.03; P = 0.001), compared to results with TOB only. Investigation of mechanisms of GA activity showed that GA resulted in significant disruption of outer membranes, depolarization of cytoplasmic membranes, and permeabilization of P. aeruginosa and was the only agent tested (including cationic AMPs) to significantly affect all three mechanisms.
Date Issued
2022-07-01
Date Acceptance
2022-06-11
Citation
Microbiology Spectrum, 2022, 10 (4)
ISSN
2165-0497
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Journal / Book Title
Microbiology Spectrum
Volume
10
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Murphy et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
License URL
Sponsor
Cystic Fibrosis Trust
Grant Number
SRC 014
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Microbiology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
antibiotic resistance
antibiotic resistance breaker
antimicrobial peptides
cystic fibrosis
drug repurposing
synergism
CATIONIC ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES
AMINOGLYCOSIDE-RESISTANCE
MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS
ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE
INHALED TOBRAMYCIN
DIVALENT-CATIONS
OUTER-MEMBRANE
PERMEABILITY
MECHANISMS
MODEL
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
antibiotic resistance
antibiotic resistance breaker
antimicrobial peptides
cystic fibrosis
drug repurposing
synergism
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Cystic Fibrosis
Glatiramer Acetate
Humans
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Pseudomonas Infections
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Tobramycin
Humans
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas Infections
Cystic Fibrosis
Tobramycin
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Glatiramer Acetate
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e00813-22
Date Publish Online
2022-06-21