Opportunities for plant natural products in infection control

Salam, Akram M.; Quave, Cassandra L.

doi:10.1016/j.mib.2018.08.004

Cited by 60 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…The activity of a range of natural products against microbes in simple in vitro assays (agar diffusion, broth microdilution or simple surface-attached biofilm assays) demonstrates their potential as a source of novel antibiotics 29 – 31 . However, the standard approach of purifying individual compounds from natural products rarely produces clinically useful products, and potent activity against planktonic bacteria in standard lab media rarely translates to in vivo efficacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Furner-Pardoe

Anonye

Cain

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Novel antimicrobials are urgently needed to combat drug-resistant bacteria and to overcome the inherent difficulties in treating biofilm-associated infections. Studying plants and other natural materials used in historical infection remedies may enable further discoveries to help fill the antibiotic discovery gap. We previously reconstructed a 1,000-year-old remedy containing onion, garlic, wine, and bile salts, known as 'Bald's eyesalve', and showed it had promising antibacterial activity. In this current paper, we have found this bactericidal activity extends to a range of Gram-negative and Grampositive wound pathogens in planktonic culture and, crucially, that this activity is maintained against Acinetobacter baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes in a soft-tissue wound biofilm model. While the presence of garlic in the mixture can explain the activity against planktonic cultures, garlic has no activity against biofilms. We have found the potent anti-biofilm activity of Bald's eyesalve cannot be attributed to a single ingredient and requires the combination of all ingredients to achieve full activity. Our work highlights the need to explore not only single compounds but also mixtures of natural products for treating biofilm infections and underlines the importance of working with biofilm models when exploring natural products for the anti-biofilm pipeline. Widespread multidrug resistance of once-susceptible pathogens, combined with a lack of success in developing novel antimicrobials, has resulted in a looming crisis. Antimicrobial resistance leads to problematic infections, threatens the success of routine surgery and cancer treatments 1 , and is estimated to kill 10 million people per year by 2050 2,3. One particularly troublesome area is biofilm-associated infection. Biofilm infections are estimated to cost the UK's National Health Service over a billion pounds every year, with this cost only set to increase 4,5. Biofilms are communities of bacteria that produce a protective extracellular matrix and are especially persistent 6. Biofilm eradication often requires 100-1,000 times higher antibiotic concentrations to achieve clearance than the same bacteria growing planktonically (as individual free-floating cells) 7. In vivo, biofilms may essentially be completely impervious to antibiotic treatment 8. The path to overcoming biofilm infections requires a multifaceted response, including the discovery and clinical deployment of novel antimicrobials. This search for novel candidates must be directed towards those pathogenic bacteria with the highest health and economic impact (e.g. ESKAPE group 9,10) and will be expedited if early discovery work on leads takes into account the inherent difficulties of treating biofilm-associated infections 6,11 .

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Furner-Pardoe

Anonye

Cain

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The activity of a range of natural products against microbes in simple in vitro assays (agar diffusion, broth microdilution or simple surface-attached biofilm assays) demonstrates their potential as a source of novel antibiotics (35–37). However, the standard approach of purifying individual compounds from natural products rarely produces clinically useful products and potent activity against planktonic bacteria in standard lab media rarely translates to in vivo efficacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Furner-Pardoe

Anonye

Cain

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Novel antimicrobials are urgently needed to combat the increasing occurrence of drug-resistant bacteria and to overcome the inherent difficulties in treating biofilm-associated infections. Research into natural antimicrobials could provide candidates to fill the antibiotic discovery gap, and the study of plants and other natural materials used in historical infection remedies may enable further discoveries of natural products with useful antimicrobial activity. We previously reconstructed a 1,000-year-old remedy containing onion, garlic, wine, and bile salts, which is known as ‘Bald’s eyesalve’, and showed it to have promising antibacterial activity. In this paper, we have found this remedy has bactericidal activity against a range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive wound pathogens in planktonic culture and, crucially, that this activity is maintained against Acinetobacter baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes in a model of soft-tissue wound biofilm. While the presence of garlic in the mixture is sufficient to explain activity against planktonic cultures, garlic alone has no activity against biofilms. We have found the potent anti-biofilm activity of Bald’s eyesalve cannot be attributed to a single ingredient and requires the combination of all ingredients to achieve full activity. Our work highlights the need to explore not only single compounds but also mixtures of natural products for treating biofilm infections. These results also underline the importance of working with biofilm models when exploring natural products for the anti-biofilm pipeline.ImportanceBacteria can live in two ways, as individual planktonic cells or as a multicellular biofilm. Biofilm helps protect bacteria from antibiotics and makes them much harder to treat. Both the biofilm lifestyle and the evolution of antibiotic resistance mean we urgently need new drugs to treat infections. Here, we show that a medieval remedy made from onion, garlic, wine, and bile can kill a range of problematic bacteria grown both planktonically and as biofilms. A single component of the remedy – allicin, derived from garlic – is sufficient to kill planktonic bacteria. However, garlic or allicin alone do nothing against bacteria when they form a biofilm. All four ingredients are needed to fully kill bacterial biofilm communities, hinting that these ingredients work together to kill the bacteria. This suggests that future discovery of antibiotics from natural products could be enhanced by studying combinations of ingredients, rather than single plants or compounds.

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“…Instead of using antibiotics, biological antimicrobial agents including natural products and bacteriocins can be used to control bacterial contamination [88]. Natural antimicrobial compounds are derived from different natural sources such as animals, plants, and microorganisms, and have been used for the treatment of human infections as well as the prevention of food spoilage [89][90][91]. One of the traditional examples is the addition of hops to the brewing process [92].…”

Section: Natural Antimicrobial Compounds and Bacteriocinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-Contamination Strategies for Yeast Fermentations

Seo

Park

Jung³

et al. 2020

Microorganisms

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Yeasts are very useful microorganisms that are used in many industrial fermentation processes such as food and alcohol production. Microbial contamination of such processes is inevitable, since most of the fermentation substrates are not sterile. Contamination can cause a reduction of the final product concentration and render industrial yeast strains unable to be reused. Alternative approaches to controlling contamination, including the use of antibiotics, have been developed and proposed as solutions. However, more efficient and industry-friendly approaches are needed for use in industrial applications. This review covers: (i) general information about industrial uses of yeast fermentation, (ii) microbial contamination and its effects on yeast fermentation, and (iii) currently used and suggested approaches/strategies for controlling microbial contamination at the industrial and/or laboratory scale.

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Opportunities for plant natural products in infection control

Cited by 60 publications

References 48 publications

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients

Anti-Contamination Strategies for Yeast Fermentations

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