Clostridioides (C.) difficile is an important causative pathogen of nosocomial gastrointestinal infections in humans with an increasing incidence, morbidity, and mortality. The available treatment options against this pathogen are limited. The standard antibiotics are expensive, can promote emerging resistance, and the recurrence rate of the infection is high. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new approaches to meet these challenges. One of the possible treatment alternatives is to use compounds available in commonly used plants. In this study, purified extracts isolated from hops—alpha and beta acids and xanthohumol—were tested in vivo for their inhibitory effect against C. difficile. A rat model of the peroral intestinal infection by C. difficile has been developed. The results show that both xanthohumol and beta acids from hops exert a notable antimicrobial effect in the C. difficile infection. The xanthohumol application showed the most pronounced antimicrobial effect together with an improvement of local inflammatory signs in the large intestine. Thus, the hops compounds represent promising antimicrobial agents for the treatment of intestinal infections caused by C. difficile.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effects of five natural substances against 50 clinical isolates of Mycoplasma hominis. The in vitro activity of selected natural compounds, cinnamon bark oil, anethole, carvacrol, eugenol and guaiazulene, was investigated against 50 M. hominis isolates cultivated from cervical swabs by the broth dilution method. All showed valuable antimicrobial activity against the tested isolates. Oil from the bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum (MBC90 = 500 µg/mL) however was found to be the most effective. Carvacrol (MBC90 = 600 µg/mL) and eugenol (MBC90 = 1000 µg/mL) also possessed strong antimycoplasmal activity. The results indicate that cinnamon bark oil, carvacrol and eugenol have strong antimycoplasmal activity and the potential for use as antimicrobial agents in the treatment of mycoplasmal infections.

Nosocomial infections, which greatly increase morbidity among hospitalized patients, together with growing antibiotic resistance still encourage many researchers to search for novel antimicrobial compounds. Picolinium salts with different lengths of alkyl chains (C₁₂, C₁₄, C₁₆) were prepared by Menshutkin-like reaction and evaluated with respect to their biological activity, i.e., lipophilicity and critical micellar concentration. Picolinium salts with C₁₄ and C₁₆ side chains achieved similar or even better results when in terms of antimicrobial efficacy than benzalkoniums; notably, their fungicidal efficiency was substantially more potent. The position of the methyl substituent on the aromatic ring does not seem to affect antimicrobial activity, in contrast to the effect of length of the N-alkyl chain. Concurrently, picolinium salts exhibited satisfactory low cytotoxicity against mammalian cells, i.e., lower than that of benzalkonium compounds, which are considered as safe.

Therapeutic regimens for the treatment of toxoplasmosis are not standardized. Treatment strategy mainly at the end of the second and the beginning of the third trimester, especially in cases of negative prenatal diagnosis, is the least uniform. In some situations, the choice of treatment may be ambiguous, and adverse drug reactions of the therapy should be taken into consideration. Adverse drug reactions of anti-toxoplasma therapy with spiramycin (n = 77) versus pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine (n = 35) were compared in 112 pregnant women. Up to 36.6% of women reported adverse reactions to the treatment overall (n = 41). Out of those 38.9% (n = 30) were treated with spiramycin and 31.4% (n = 11) with pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine. Toxic allergic reactions were the only indication for discontinuation of treatment in 8.9% of patients (n = 10), where 9.1% (n = 7) were reported in spiramycin and 8.6% (n = 3) in pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine cohort. Neurotoxic complications (acral paraesthesia) were significantly more frequent during the therapy with spiramycine in 19.5% (n = 15) compared to no cases in pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine group (p = .003). Other adverse drug reactions, such as gastrointestinal discomfort, nephrotoxicity, vaginal discomfort were reported, but the differences between the cohorts were not significant. The superiority of one of the therapeutic regimens was not statistically demonstrated, since the differences in overall toxicity or incidence of toxic allergic reactions between the cohorts were not confirmed (p = .53 and p = 1.00, respectively). However, although the isolated neurotoxicity of spiramycin was the only significant adverse reaction demonstrated in this study, pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine therapy should be preferred, because it is known to be more effective and with limited adverse reactions.

Open Access Agricultural Journals published by Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information

Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is an important causative agent of wound infections with increasing incidence in the past decades. Specifically, the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) causes serious problems, especially in nosocomial infections. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop of alternative or supportive antimicrobial therapeutic modalities to meet these challenges. Purified compounds from hops have previously shown promising antimicrobial effects against MRSA isolates in vitro. In this study, purified beta-acids from hops were tested for their potential antimicrobial and healing properties using a porcine model of wounds infected by MRSA. The results show highly significant antimicrobial effects of the active substance in both the powder and Ambiderman-based application forms compared to both no-treatment control and treatment with Framycoin. Moreover, the macroscopic evaluation of the wounds during the treatment using the standardized Wound Healing Continuum indicated positive effects of the beta-acids on the overall wound healing. This is further supported by the microscopic data, which showed a clear improvement of the inflammatory parameters in the wounds treated by beta-acids. Thus, using the porcine model, we demonstrate significant therapeutic effects of hops compounds in the management of wounds infected by MRSA. Beta-acids from hops, therefore, represent a suitable candidate for the treatment of non-responsive nosocomial tissue infections by MRSA.