ArticlePloS one2017
Membrane-active macromolecules kill antibiotic-tolerant bacteria and potentiate antibiotics towards Gram-negative bacteria.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Resistance breakers: a novel approach to tackle biofilm associated infections and antimicrobial resistance.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Polymyxin B lethality requires energy-dependent outer membrane disruption.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Polyacrylamide-Based Antimicrobial Copolymers to Replace or Rescue Antibiotics.ACS central science · 2025Article
- Antimicrobial peptide LL37 is potent against non-growingmSphere · 2025Article
- Comparative evaluation of antimicrobial peptides: effect on formation, metabolic activity and viability ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Intrinsic antimicrobial resistance: Molecular biomaterials to combat microbial biofilms and bacterial persisters.Biomaterials · 2024Review
- Antimicrobial Agent against Methicillin-ResistantPharmaceutics · 2023Article
- Review
- Clostridioides difficile Modifies its Aromatic Compound Metabolism in Response to Amidochelocardin-Induced Membrane Stress.mSphere · 2022Article
- Bacterial Outer Membrane Permeability Increase Underlies the Bactericidal Effect of Fatty Acids FromFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Fusogenic porous silicon nanoparticles as a broad-spectrum immunotherapy against bacterial infections.Nanoscale horizons · 2021Article
- Article
- Antimicrobial Peptides from Rat-Tailed Maggots of the Drone FlyMicroorganisms · 2020Article
- Article
- Usnic acid modifies MRSA drug resistance through down-regulation of proteins involved in peptidoglycan and fatty acid biosynthesis.FEBS open bio · 2019Article
- Polymeric Systems as Antimicrobial or Antifouling Agents.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Article
- More QACs, more questions: Recent advances in structure activity relationships and hurdles in understanding resistance mechanisms.Tetrahedron letters · 2019Article
- Antibiotic Killing of Diversely Generated Populations of Nonreplicating Bacteria.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2019Article
- Exogenous fatty acids alter phospholipid composition, membrane permeability, capacity for biofilm formation, and antimicrobial peptide susceptibility in Klebsiella pneumoniae.MicrobiologyOpen · 2019Article
- Hypoionic Shock Facilitates Aminoglycoside Killing of Both Nutrient Shift- and Starvation-Induced Bacterial Persister Cells by Rapidly Enhancing Aminoglycoside Uptake.Frontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chronic bacterial biofilms place a massive burden on healthcare due to the presence of antibiotic-tolerant dormant bacteria. Some of the conventional antibiotics such as erythromycin, vancomycin, linezolid, rifampicin etc. are inherently ineffective against Gram-negative bacteria, particularly in their biofilms. Here, we report membrane-active macromolecules that kill slow dividing stationary-phase and antibiotic tolerant cells of Gram-negative bacteria. More importantly, these molecules potentiate antibiotics (erythromycin and rifampicin) to biofilms of Gram-negative bacteria. These molecules eliminate planktonic bacteria that are liberated after dispersion of biofilms (dispersed cells). The membrane-active mechanism of these molecules forms the key for potentiating the established antibiotics. Further, we demonstrate that the combination of macromolecules and antibiotics significantly reduces bacterial burden in mouse burn and surgical wound infection models caused by Acinetobacter baumannii and Carbapenemase producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC) clinical isolate respectively. Colistin, a well-known antibiotic targeting the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria fails to kill antibiotic tolerant cells and dispersed cells (from biofilms) and bacteria develop resistance to it. On the contrary, these macromolecules prevent or delay the development of bacterial resistance to known antibiotics. Our findings emphasize the potential of targeting the bacterial membrane in antibiotic potentiation for disruption of biofilms and suggest a promising strategy towards developing therapies for topical treatment of Gram-negative infections.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.