Background In patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), Staphylococcus aureus frequently colonizes lesions and is hypothesized to be linked to disease severity and progression. Treatments that reduce S. aureus colonization without significantly affecting the skin commensal microbiota are needed. Methods and findings In this study, we tested ATx201 (niclosamide), a small molecule, on its efficacy to reduce S. aureus and propensity to evolve resistance in vitro. Various cutaneous formulations were then tested in a superficial skin infection model. Finally, a Phase 2 randomized, double‐blind and placebo‐controlled trial was performed to investigate the impact of ATx201 OINTMENT 2% on S. aureus colonization and skin microbiome composition in patients with mild‐to‐severe AD (EudraCT:2016‐003501‐33). ATx201 has a narrow minimal inhibitory concentration distribution (.125–.5 μg/ml) consistent with its mode of action – targeting the proton motive force effectively stopping cell growth. In murine models, ATx201 can effectively treat superficial skin infections of methicillin‐resistant S. aureus. In a Phase 2 trial in patients with mild‐to‐severe AD (N = 36), twice‐daily treatment with ATx201 OINTMENT 2% effectively reduces S. aureus colonization in quantitative colony forming unit (CFU) analysis (primary endpoint: 94.4% active vs. 38.9% vehicle success rate, p = .0016) and increases the Shannon diversity of the skin microbiome at day 7 significantly compared to vehicle. Conclusion These results suggest that ATx201 could become a new treatment modality as a decolonizing agent.

Background and objectiveP-glycoprotein (P-gp), a transmembrane transporter expressed at the blood–brain barrier, restricts the distribution of diverse central nervous system-targeted drugs from blood into brain, reducing their therapeutic efficacy. The third-generation P-gp inhibitor tariquidar (XR9576) was shown to enhance brain distribution of P-gp substrate drugs in humans. Oral bioavailability of tariquidar was found to be low in humans requiring the compound to be administered intravenously, which hinders a broader clinical use. The objective of the present study was to investigate the plasma pharmacokinetics of tariquidar in rats after single intravenous, oral, and intraperitoneal administration.MethodsTwo different tariquidar formulations (A and B) were used, both at a dosage of 15 mg/kg, respectively. Formulation A was a solution and formulation B was a microemulsion which was previously shown to improve the oral bioavailability of the structurally related P-gp inhibitor elacridar in mice.ResultsIn contrast to human data, the present study found a high bioavailability of tariquidar in rats after oral dosing. Oral bioavailability was significantly higher (p = 0.032) for formulation B (86.3%) than for formulation A (71.6%). After intraperitoneal dosing bioavailability was 91.4% for formulation A and 99.6% for formulation B.ConclusionThe present findings extend the available information on tariquidar and provide a basis for future studies involving oral administration of this compound.

Objectives: Susceptibility testing is usually performed under standardized conditions for comparison of the activity of antimicrobial agents and the susceptibility of strains, but this does not reflect potential pathophysiological alterations at the infection site. While some impact factors have been studied already, there is a lack of knowledge about how different factors interact pharmacodynamically. We investigated the impact of albumin, pH and temperature in various combinations on the antimicrobial activity of glycopeptides. Methods: Determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and timeekill curves were performed for telavancin, vancomycin and teicoplanin using 20 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and ATCC29213. The impact of the addition of 12% albumin, pH reduction to pH6, and temperature ranging from 32 C to 42 C was studied and compared to the standard setting in the reference medium Mueller Hinton broth (MHB). Results: At pH7 and 37 C the addition of albumin increased median MICs four-fold, eight-fold and twofold for telavancin, teicoplanin and vancomycin, respectively. While changing temperature or pH alone had a moderate impact, the combination of albumin addition, pH decrease and temperature increase led to the maximum reduction of activity of 16-fold for teicoplanin compared to the standard setting. Temperature increase to 42 C increased the effect of albumin for teicoplanin and telavancin, resulting in ratios of 15.9 and 8. In contrast, reducing pH with concomitant albumin addition reduced the effect of albumin addition alone for telavancin, resulting in a ratio of 2 instead of 4. Conclusion:Combining different impact factors showed a highly heterogeneous impact on the activity of glycopeptides. It might be misleading to take only protein binding into consideration in pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models.

It has been shown that protein binding, temperature, and pH influence in vitro pharmacodynamic (PD) models. The fact that corpuscular blood compounds might also have an important impact is something which has, until now, often been neglected. We investigated if the addition of human erythrocytes to standard growth media (Mueller Hinton Broth, MHBII) has an influence on bacterial growth behavior and on antibiotic efficacy. We did this by using bacterial growth assays and time kill curves (TKC) of selected strains ( Escherichia coli ATCC25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29213, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853) over 24 h. The final concentration of erythrocytes was set to match the physiological concentrations in the blood of a healthy human, i.e., 3 × 10^6 cells/μl in MHBII. Meropenem, ciprofloxacin, and tigecycline were tested with concentrations several-fold above and below the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). Moreover, HPLC analysis of antibiotic stability and distribution in erythrocytes was performed. Meropenem, ciprofloxacin, and tigecycline showed the greatest decline in activity against E. coli when erythrocytes were present. A mean difference in log10 bacterial killing between pure MHBII and 50%-Ery of 3.83, 1.33, and 2.42 was found for ciprofloxacin, meropenem, and tigecycline, respectively. In the case of ciprofloxacin, HPLC analysis revealed that less extracellular antibiotic is available in the presence of erythrocytes. We have demonstrated that erythrocytes do influence antimicrobial activity and that this might have an impact on the extrapolation of in vitro activity testing to in vivo efficacy in patients.

There is evidence that Staphylococcus aureus colonisation is linked to severity of atopic dermatitis. As no gold standard for S. aureus sampling on atopic dermatitis skin lesions exists, this study compared three commonly used methods. In addition, effectiveness of standard skin disinfection to remove S. aureus colonisation from these inflamed skin lesions was investigated. In 30 atopic dermatitis patients, three different S. aureus sampling methods, i.e. detergent scrubbing, moist swabbing and tape stripping, were performed on naïve and disinfected skin lesions. Two different S. aureus selective media, mannitol salt agar and chromID agar, were used for bacterial growing. Quantifying the S. aureus load varied significantly between the different sampling methods on naïve skin lesions ranging from mean 51 to 1.5 × 104 CFU/cm2 (p < 0.001). The qualitative detection on naïve skin was highest with the two detergent-based techniques (86% each), while for tape stripping, this value was 67% (all on chromID agar). In comparison, mannitol salt agar was less sensitive (p < 0.001). The disinfection of the skin lesions led to a significant reduction of the S. aureus load (p < 0.05) but no complete eradication in the case of previously positive swab. The obtained data highlight the importance of the selected sampling method and consecutive S. aureus selection agar plates to implement further clinical studies for the effectiveness of topical anti-staphylococcal antibiotics. Other disinfection regimes should be considered in atopic dermatitis patients when complete de-colonisation of certain skin areas is required, e.g. for surgical procedures.