BF-30 effectively inhibits ciprofloxacin-resistant bacteria in vitro and in a rat model of vaginosis

Abstract

Bacterial infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the increasing number of multidrug-resistant strains. Cathelicidin-BF (BF-30) is a cathelicidin-like antimicrobial peptide and exhibits broad antimicrobial activity against bacteria. In the present study, the antibacterial activity of BF-30 against ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was examined, and the protective effects of this peptide against these bacteria in rats with bacterial vaginosis were identified for the first time. The data showed that BF-30 had effective antimicrobial activities against ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli and S. aureus. The minimal inhibitory concentrations for both bacterial strains were 16 μg/ml, and the minimal bactericidal concentrations were 64 and 128 μg/ml, respectively. A time course experiment showed that the CFU counts rapidly decreased after BF-30 treatment, and the bacteria were nearly eliminated within 4 h. BF-30 could reduce the fold change (CFU/ml) in local colonization by drug-resistant E. coli and S. aureus to 0.01 at a dose of 0.8 mg/kg/day in the rats' vaginal secretions. In addition, BF-30 induced membrane permeabilization and bound to the genomic DNA, interrupting protein synthesis. Taken together, our data demonstrate that BF-30 has potential therapeutic value for the prevention and treatment of bacterial vaginosis.

Cathelicidin-BF suppresses intestinal inflammation by inhibiting the nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway and enhancing the phagocytosis of immune cells via STAT-1 in weanling piglets

“…Cathelicidin-BF (C-BF or BF-30) was derived from the snake venoms of the Chinese endemic genera Bungarus fascia and is considered to be a potent peptide antibiotic [18]. Cathelicidin-BF displayed effective antimicrobial activities against ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus [19]. In addition, C-BF displayed higher antibacterial activity against enteric pathogens isolated from the feces of diarrheal weaned piglets than other cathelicidin peptides [12].…”

Therapeutic effects of probiotic Clostridium butyricum WZ001 on bacterial vaginosis in mice

“…Oestrogen combined with E. coli is a widely used method to establish animal models of BV. Along with the high stability, these models can simulate the pathogenesis and clinical manifestation of BV (Wang et al , b). In the present study, this animal model was successfully established and confirmed by detecting the symptom indexes, CFU and neutrophil count, providing a solid guarantee for the subsequent experiments.…”

Vipericidins, Snake Venom Cathelicidin-Related Peptides, in the Milieu of Reptilian Antimicrobial Polypeptides

“…These peptides are broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides that are active against clinical and standard strains of bacteria and pathogenic fungi, including antibiotic-resistant isolates (Wang et al 2008(Wang et al , 2013cZhao et al 2008;Falcao et al 2014;Xia et al 2015). Interestingly, in a study using a mouse model of endotoxemia as induced by an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide, Bungarus fasciatus cathelicidin precluded the damage and the cell death that were provoked by LPS to the intestinal epithelium.…”

“…Advanced research about the multiple actions of snake cathelicidins has revealed that apart from displaying an efficacious killing effect against microbes, elapid CRAMPs (Tian et al 2013;Wang et al 2013c) and vipericidins (unpublished personal data) are cytotoxic for different types of tumor cells. The mechanisms by which snake venom cathelicidin kills bacterial and tumor cells are also conserved.…”