ArticlePloS one2018
Tetracyclines function as dual-action light-activated antibiotics.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Design of a cyclic peptide targeting intracellular Staphylococcus aureus.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Article
- Beta-lactam antibiotics under light: optical and photochemical characterization.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2026Article
- Glutathione-Encoding Genes (gshA and gshB) are Associated with Oxidative Stress and Antibiotic Susceptibility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Concurrent Determination of Tigecycline, Tetracyclines and Their 4-Epimer Derivatives in Chicken Muscle Isolated from a Reversed-Phase Chromatography System Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Combined Antimicrobial Blue Light and Antibiotics as a Tool for Eradication of Multidrug-Resistant Isolates ofAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Antimicrobial Blue Light versus Pathogenic Bacteria: Mechanism, Application in the Food Industry, Hurdle Technologies and Potential Resistance.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Article
- Oxygen-Independent Antimicrobial Photoinactivation: Type III Photochemical Mechanism?Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Effect of Blue Light and Photosensitizers onJournal of bone and joint infection · 2020Article
- The Influence of the Degradation of Tetracycline by Free Radicals from Riboflavin-5'-Phosphate Photolysis on Microbial Viability.Microorganisms · 2019Article
- Using Colistin as a Trojan Horse: Inactivation of Gram-Negative Bacteria with Chlorophyllin.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Tetracyclines: light-activated antibiotics?Future medicinal chemistry · 2019Review
- Antimicrobials Are a Photodynamic Inactivation Adjuvant for the Eradication of Extensively Drug-ResistantFrontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
- Antimicrobial Photodynamic Inactivation Mediated by Tetracyclines in Vitro and in Vivo: Photochemical Mechanisms and Potentiation by Potassium Iodide.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Effects of 462 nm Light-Emitting Diode on the Inactivation ofJournal of clinical medicine · 2018Article
- Radical-scavenging and Pro-/anti-inflammatory Activity of Tetracycline and Related Phenolic Compounds With or Without Visible Light Irradiation.In vivo (Athens, Greece)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation (aPDI) employs photosensitizing dyes activated by visible light to produce reactive oxygen species. aPDI is independent of the antibiotic resistance status of the target cells, and is thought unlikely to produce resistance itself. Among many PS that have been investigated, tetracyclines occupy a unique niche. They are potentially dual-action compounds that can both kill bacteria under illumination, and prevent bacterial regrowth by inhibiting ribosomes. Tetracycline antibiotics are regarded as bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal. Doxycycline (DOTC) is excited best by UVA light (365 nm) while demeclocycline (DMCT) can be efficiently activated by blue light (415 nm) as well as UVA. Both compounds were able to eradicate Gram-positive (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria (>6 log(10) steps of killing) at concentrations (10-50μM) and fluences (10-20J/cm2). In contrast to methylene blue, MB plus red light, tetracyclines photoinactivated bacteria in rich growth medium. When ~3 logs of bacteria were killed with DMCT/DOTC+light and the surviving cells were added to growth medium, further bacterial killing was observed, while the same experiment with MB allowed complete regrowth. MIC studies were carried out either in the dark or exposed to 0.5mW/cm2 blue light. Up to three extra steps (8-fold) increased antibiotic activity was found with light compared to dark, with MRSA and tetracycline-resistant strains of E. coli. Tetracyclines can accumulate in bacterial ribosomes, where they could be photoactivated with blue/UVA light producing microbial killing via ROS generation.
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Registered trials
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