Plants from the Asteraceae family are widely used as ethno medicines to treatment parasitic, malaria, hematemesis, pruritus, pyretic, anthelmintic, wound healing. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of Asteraceae plants antimicrobial activity. The most relevant results from the published studies are summarized and discussed. The species in genus of Artemisia, Echinacea, Centaurea, Baccharis, and Calendula showed antimicrobial activity. Most of these species are usually used as ethno medicines to treat infection, inflammation, and parasitics. The effective part or component for antimicrobial was essential oil and crude extract, and essential oil attracted more attention. It was also reported that nanoparticles coated with crude extract were effective against multidrug resistant bacteria. For multidrug resistant bacteria study, the species in Armtemisia were the most investigated, and Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were the most studied multidrug resistant strains. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated mainly based on the results of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Few reports have been reported on minimum bactericide concentration (MBC) and its antibacterial mechanisms. According to the reported study results, some plants in Asteraceae have the potential to be developed as bacteriostatic agents and against multidrug resistant bacteria. However, most studies are still in vitro, further clinical and applied studies are needed.

To analyse the antibiotic resistance, resistance genes and clonal relationship of Escherichia coli in bloodstream infections in Ningxia from 2022 to 2023. We retrospectively analyzed the antibiotic susceptibilities of 257 isolates. PCR was used to detect blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX−M, qnrS, qnrA, qnrB, oqxA, qepA, gyrA, gyrB, parC, and parE, and the clonal relationship through multilocus sequence typing (MLST). One hundred and twenty-nine of 257 patients were male (50.2%). The 257 E. coli isolates were mainly obtained from the Emergency, Hepatobiliary Surgery, and Haematology Departments, accounting for 56.6%, 7.3%, and 6.2%, respectively. There is no significant difference in sex and genes between the two groups over and under 60 years old (P > 0.05), but there is a significant difference in ST between them(P<0.05). The antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that the 257 isolates had the highest rates of resistance to ampicillin (82.8%), followed by cefazolin (71.6%), and all isolates were susceptible to tigecycline. Based on the antibiotic susceptibility results for ceftriaxone, we tested 126 isolates of E. coli for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) resistance genes. As a result, blaCTX−M was detected in 76 isolates (60.32%), blaSHV in 26 isolates (20.63%), and blaTEM in 38 isolates (30.16%). Based on the ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin antibiotic susceptibility results, we tested for quinolone resistance genes in 148 isolates, revealing 66 isolates of aac(6')-Ib-cr (44.60%), 3 isolates of oqxA (2.02%), 32 isolates of qnrS (21.62%), and 2 isolates of qepA (1.35%). We did not detect qnrA or qnrB. The detection rates of gyrA, gyrB, parC, and parE were 98%, 42.6%, 91.2%, and 87.8%, respectively and the main amino acid mutations were Ser83 to Leu, Asp87 to Asn(75.2%), Leu417 to Ser, Ser418 to Leu (6.3%), Ser80 to Ile (65.2%), and Ser458 to Ala (21.5%), respectively. MLST revealed that the most common sequence types (STs) were ST69 (12.5%), ST131 (8.2%), and ST1193 (7.8%). In our hospital, E. coli was resistant to most commonly used antibiotics, and cefoperazone/sulbactam, cefotetan, amikacin, and tigecycline were empirically selected for the treatment of bloodstream infections. The predominant ESBL genotype in our hospital was blaCTX−M and the major quinolone resistance gene was aac(6')-Ib-cr. Clonal relationship analysis revealed genetic diversity among the isolates.

Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), especially chronic infections associated with biofilm formation, have become a major clinical challenge. Phage therapy has received much attention as an alternative strategy, but temperate phages have limited direct application due to their lysogenicity. The aim of this study was to explore the synergistic therapeutic effect of a novel temperate phage combined with antibiotics. A temperate Pseudomonas phage YF1204 was isolated from the patient’s bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and systematically characterized by whole-genome sequencing, transmission electron microscopy, and host range analysis. The synergistic antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects of phage with amikacin (AK) were evaluated by using the checkerboard test, a time-killing curve based on optical density (OD600) and crystal violet staining, and the cytocompatibility was analyzed by using the CCK-8 method. The results showed that phage YF1204 belonged to the Siphoviridae family and had typical temperate phage genome characteristics (containing integrase gene). It also showed lytic activity against 41.4% (87/210) of the clinical isolates, especially against carbapenem-resistant strains. When YF1204 was combined with AK, it reduced the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AK by 2- to 8-fold across all tested strains, respectively. Moreover, the inhibitory effect against CRPA was significantly enhanced (achieving suppression indexes about 80% ) and biofilm formation was inhibited with an inhibition ratio of 48.75%. Cell experiments showed that YF1204 had no significant toxicity to THP-1 cells. The combination of YF1204 and AK exhibited significant synergistic bactericidal and anti-biofilm activities, providing a novel therapeutic strategy with translational potential for CRPA-induced refractory infections.

Introduction: Acinetobacter baumannii has been identified as a critical pathogen, and new antibiotics are urgently needed. Volatile oils, which function as natural antibacterial agents, may provide an effective means of inhibiting A. baumannii. However, the antibacterial activity and mechanism of the volatile oil derived from the dried bark of Cinnamomum cassia (CBV), as well as its additive effect when combined with imipenem (IPM) against A. baumannii, remain unclear.Methods: CBV was extracted using the hydrodistillation method and characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of CBV and IPM against A. baumannii were determined using the microdilution method. A checkerboard assay was performed to evaluate the additive effect of CBV (concentration range: 0–1 μL/mL) and IPM (concentration range: 0–256 μg/mL) against A. baumannii, with the fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) calculated. A time-kill curve analysis was performed to assess the additive effect of CBV (0.125 μL/mL) and IPM (4 μg/mL) against A. baumannii. Antibiofilm activity was evaluated using a crystal violet staining assay. Cell membrane integrity was assessed using SYTO 9/PI staining based on fluorescence color. Intracellular protein levels were quantified using a BCA kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe morphological changes in A. baumannii. Additionally, the antibacterial mechanism was elucidated through a combination of transcriptomic and proteomic analyses.Results: An additive effect (FICI = 0.53) was observed when CBV and IPM were combined against A. baumannii, reducing the MIC of IPM from 256 μg/mL to 4 μg/mL. CBV and IPM inhibited biofilm formation, damaged the cell membrane, and induced intracellular protein leakage in A. baumannii. Compared to CBV or IPM alone, the combination group (at the dosage showing an additive effect) caused significantly greater damage to the cell membrane of A. baumannii. CBV and IPM also induced significant changes at both the transcriptomic and proteomic levels in A. baumannii. Functional analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and proteins (DEPs) were involved in multiple pathways. Both CBV and IPM contributed to the observed antibacterial activity. CBV primarily influenced the ribosome pathway, while IPM mainly influenced oxidative phosphorylation. In the combination treatment, the simultaneous targeting of the ribosome and oxidative phosphorylation pathways was identified as the key antibacterial mechanism.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the combination of CBV and IPM exhibits promising antimicrobial activity against A. baumannii, suggesting that CBV could serve as a potential natural candidate for the development of novel antibiotic agents. While the current findings establish a mechanistic foundation for CBV’s antimicrobial effects, further research is necessary to facilitate its clinical translation. Specifically, formulation optimization studies are necessary to enhance the therapeutic viability of the CBV/IPM combination, and comprehensive in vivo investigations are crucial to validate the antibacterial efficacy and safety profile of CBV/IPM prior to clinical application.

Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is a major pathogen in intensive care units and is associated with substantial mortality. However, prognostic tools specifically developed for intensive care unit (ICU) patients with KP infection remain limited. This study aimed to identify stable prognostic factors and develop a predictive model for mortality in this population. Methods: A total of 587 adult ICU patients with culture-confirmed KP infection (first positive culture) at a tertiary hospital between August 2020 and February 2025 were retrospectively included. Candidate predictors were screened using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and bootstrap-based stability selection to identify stable prognostic predictors. Using the final stable predictors, 11 models (including logistic regression and tree-based approaches) with 10-fold cross-validation were developed and compared. Model performance was evaluated using discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to explore potential non-linear predictor–outcome associations. Results: Mortality occurred in 122/587 patients (20.8%). Five stable prognostic factors were identified: Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, lactate, viral co-infection, acute kidney injury (AKI), and the alveolar–arterial oxygen gradient (A-aDO ₂ ). Among the evaluated algorithms, logistic regression achieved the most favorable balance of discrimination, calibration, and interpretability, with a cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.809. Non-linear or threshold-like patterns were observed for APACHE II (approximately 16.56), lactate (approximately 2.87 mmol/L), and the A-aDO ₂ (approximately 203.27 mmHg). Based on logistic regression, a nomogram and a web-based calculator were constructed for individualized risk estimation. Conclusion: A parsimonious model based on five stable variables showed good performance for predicting mortality among ICU patients with KP infection. However, these findings are exploratory and require external validation before any clinical application.