Antibacterial effects of antimicrobial peptides incombination of antibiotics against multidrug-resistantEscherichia coli

• Main Authors: CHEN, MING-HSIN, 陳明芯
• Other Authors: Wei-Jung Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/45f264

碩士 === 國立宜蘭大學 === 生物資源學院碩士在職專班 === 102 === Extensive use of classical antibiotics has led to the growing emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. Since the late 1980s, MDR intestinal bacteria were believed to be the main cause of nosocomial infection outbreak in medical centers, and the most common intestinal bacterium is Escherichia coli. Evidence has suggested that cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are of greatest potential to represent a new class of antibiotics. They can be found in almost all living organisms. AMPs can selectively bind to negatively charged bacterial cell membrane, induce cell lysis, or enter bacteria and interrupt with their biological activities, thus leading to cell death. According to the previous studies, some AMPs were also potent against MDR bacterial strains. In the current study, we used two AMPs, a synthetic AMP H1-a, and a derivative from winter flounder AMP pleurocidin, Ple-a, in combination with several groups of antibiotics and tested their antibacterial effects against MDR E. coli. Our results indicated that AMPs used in combination with Penicillin drugs (Ampicillin), Cephalosporin drugs (Ceftazidime/Cefotaxime), and β-lactam/ β-lactamase drugs (Ampicillin-sulbactam) showing significant synergistic effects. AMPs used in combination with other groups of antibiotics, such as Fluroquinolone (Levofloxacin) mostly showed additive effects. These findings provided support that AMPs used in combination with antibiotics may serve as potential novel antibacterial agent in the near future.