Looking to nature for a new concept in antimicrobial treatments: isoflavonoids from Cytisus striatus as antibiotic adjuvants against MRSA

Abstract

The spread of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), has shortened the useful life of anti-staphylococcal drugs enormously. Two approaches can be followed to address this problem: screening various sources for new leads for antibiotics or finding ways to disable the resistance mechanisms to existing antibiotics. Plants are resistant to most microorganisms, but despite extensive efforts to identify metabolites that are responsible for this resistance, no substantial progress has been made. Plants possibly use multiple strategies to deal with microorganisms that evolved over time. For this reason, we searched for plants that could potentiate the effects of known antibiotics. From 29 plant species tested, Cytisus striatus clearly showed such an activity and an NMR-based metabolomics study allowed the identification of compounds from the plant extracts that could act as antibiotic adjuvants. Isoflavonoids were found to potentiate the effect of ciprofloxacin and erythromycin against MRSA strains. For the structure-activity relationship (SAR), 22 isoflavonoids were assessed as antibiotic adjuvants. This study reveals a clear synergy between isoflavonoids and the tested antibiotics, showing their great potential for applications in the clinical therapy of infections with antibiotic-resistant microorganisms such as MRSA.

Recent advances in allelopathy for weed control: from knowledge to applications

“…Intermolecular interactions lead to changes in dipolar moment, solubility and stability in various types of media. Molecules can form clusters that give rise to synergistic effects, but this aspect has barely been discussed in recent studies . One case is the joint action of binary mixtures of aguerin B, cynaropicrin, grosheimin and 11,13‐dihydroxy‐8‐desoxygrosheimin (Fig.…”

“…Molecules can form clusters that give rise to synergistic effects, but this aspect has barely been discussed in recent studies. 238 One case is the joint action of binary mixtures of aguerin B, cynaropicrin, grosheimin and 11,13-dihydroxy-8-desoxygrosheimin (Fig. 6b), which increase the inhibitory activity of each compound separately against wheat coleoptile.…”

Flavonoids: A complementary approach to conventional therapy of COVID-19?

“…It has been reported that flavones and catechins appear to be the most powerful antioxidants, preventing the effects of reactive oxygen species in the body (Nijveldt et al 2001 ; Panche et al 2016 ). There are numerous studies highlighting the broad range of biological activities of flavonoids, including antioxidant (D’Amelia et al 2018 ), anti-cancer (LeJeune et al 2015 ), antimicrobial (Abreu et al 2017 ; Solnier et al 2020 ), antiviral (Wang et al 1998 ), and anti-inflammatory (Catarino et al 2016 ) activities (Panche et al 2016 ).

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Multidrug and Pan-Antibiotic Resistance—The Role of Antimicrobial and Synergistic Essential Oils: A Review

“…22 In the study mentioned above, Abreu et al identified plant extract compounds that could act as antibiotic adjuvants "showing their great potential for application in the clinical therapy of infections with antibiotic-resistant microorganisms such as MRSA." 20 A review by Chambers and Deleo noted CA MRSA has characteristics not found in HA MRSA. Tissue-destructive infections that include necrotizing fasciitis and fulminant, necrotizing pneumonia may be a result of CA MRSA genes that encode the virulence factor Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, which induces leukocyte destruction and tissue necrosis.…”