No abstract

Respiratory disease is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). In particular, patients suffer from chronic infection due to biofilm formation by opportunistic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (32). Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative ways to treat biofilm-associated clinical infections. The aim of this study was to compare the antimicrobial effects in vitro of the combinations tobramycin-clarithromycin and tobramycin-azithromycin against five P. aeruginosa biofilms and to establish the most effective combination. We performed a kinetic study over a period of 28 days of a twice-daily coadministration of the combinations tobramycin-clarithromycin and tobramycin-azithromycin on 12-day-old, mature P. aeruginosa biofilms formed on microplate pegs for 4 clinical isolates and one laboratory strain (PAO1) to simulate the treatment of CF patients with tobramycin inhalation solution (TOBI) through aerosolization. A synergy between tobramycin and clarithromycin was recorded for 3/5 biofilms, with a bacterial decrease of more than 5 log. Conversely, we found an antagonistic activity when 4 g/ml tobramycin was administered with azithromycin at 2 g/ml for P. aeruginosa PAO1 and with azithromycin at 2, 20, 50, 100, and 200 g/ml for P. aeruginosa PYO1. Treatment with tobramycin at 4 g/ml combined with clarithromycin at 200 g/ml eradicated all five biofilms, while tobramycin-azithromycin at the same concentrations eradicated only three biofilms. Results of this study suggest that local administration of tobramycin and clarithromycin into the respiratory tract represents a better strategy than the combination tobramycin-azithromycin for the treatment of P. aeruginosa-associated pulmonary infections.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonisation and chronic lung infection associated with biofilm formation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. There is thus an urgent need to develop alternative ways to treat biofilm-associated clinical infections. A kinetic study of twice-daily co-administration of the antibiotics tobramycin and clarithromycin was performed over 28 days on 12-day-old mature P. aeruginosa biofilms formed on microplate pegs for 23 clinical isolates of various phenotypes and genotypes to simulate the treatment of CF patients with inhaled tobramycin through aerosolisation (TOBI). Drug activity was assessed by enumeration of persistent bacteria before, during and after treatment. A mature (12-day-old) biofilm model was chosen because a previous study suggested that such a biofilm was a more realistic in vitro model than a 24-h-old biofilm. Synergistic activity of the drug combination was confirmed on biofilms of 9/23 P. aeruginosa isolates. Of these nine isolates, total destruction of the biofilm was observed for five of them. Combination treatment was superior or equivalent to treatment with tobramycin alone, as activity was observed on 47.8% of the isolates with the combination versus 26.1% with tobramycin alone. No correlation was observed between drug susceptibility profiles and the phenotype or genotype of the isolates.