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BMC Infectious Diseases
Published in: BMC Infectious Diseases 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Doxycycline | Research article

Use of ceragenins as a potential treatment for urinary tract infections

Authors: Urszula Wnorowska, Ewelina Piktel, Bonita Durnaś, Krzysztof Fiedoruk, Paul B. Savage, Robert Bucki

Published in: BMC Infectious Diseases | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common bacterial infections. High recurrence rates and the increasing antibiotic resistance among uropathogens constitute a large social and economic problem in current public health. We assumed that combination of treatment that includes the administration ceragenins (CSAs), will reinforce the effect of antimicrobial LL-37 peptide continuously produced by urinary tract epithelial cells. Such treatment might be an innovative approach to enhance innate antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant E. coli.

Methods

Antibacterial activity measured using killing assays. Biofilm formation was assessed using crystal violet staining. Viability of bacteria and bladder epithelial cells subjected to incubation with tested agents was determined using MTT assays. We investigated the effects of chosen molecules, both alone and in combinations against four clinical strains of E. coli, obtained from patients diagnosed with recurrent UTI.

Results

We observed that the LL-37 peptide, whose concentration increases at sites of urinary infection, exerts increased bactericidal effect against E. coli when combined with ceragenins CSA-13 and CSA-131.

Conclusion

We suggest that the employment of combination of natural peptide LL-37 with synthetic analogs might be a potential solution to treat urinary tract infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria.
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Metadata
Title
Use of ceragenins as a potential treatment for urinary tract infections
Authors
Urszula Wnorowska
Ewelina Piktel
Bonita Durnaś
Krzysztof Fiedoruk
Paul B. Savage
Robert Bucki
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Infectious Diseases / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2334
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-019-3994-3

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