Hand hygiene is of utmost importance as it may be contaminated easily from direct contact with airborne microorganism droplets from coughs and sneezes. Particularly in situations like pandemic outbreak, it is crucial to interrupt the transmission chain of the virus by the practice of proper hand sanitization. It can be achieved with contact isolation and strict infection control tool like maintaining good hand hygiene in hospital settings and in public. The success of the hand sanitization solely depends on the use of effective hand disinfecting agents formulated in various types and forms such as antimicrobial soaps, water-based or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, with the latter being widely used in hospital settings. To date, most of the effective hand sanitizer products are alcohol-based formulations containing 62%–95% of alcohol as it can denature the proteins of microbes and the ability to inactivate viruses. This systematic review correlated with the data available in Pubmed, and it will investigate the range of available hand sanitizers and their effectiveness as well as the formulation aspects, adverse effects, and recommendations to enhance the formulation efficiency and safety. Further, this article highlights the efficacy of alcohol-based hand sanitizer against the coronavirus.

There is an urgent need to discover novel antimicrobial therapies. Drug repurposing can reduce the time and cost risk associated with drug development. We report the inhibitory effects of anthelmintic drugs (niclosamide, oxyclozanide, closantel, rafoxanide) against Helicobacter pylori strain 60190 and pursued further characterization of niclosamide against H. pylori. The MIC of niclosamide against H. pylori was 0.25 μg/mL. Niclosamide was stable in acidic pH and demonstrated partial synergy with metronidazole and proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole and pantoprazole. Niclosamide administration at 1 × MIC concentration, eliminated 3-log₁₀ CFU of H. pylori adhesion/invasion to AGS cells. Interestingly, no resistance developed even after exposure of H. pylori bacteria to niclosamide for 30 days. The cytotoxic assay demonstrated that niclosamide is not hemolytic and has an IC₅₀ of 4 μg/mL in hepatic and gastric cell lines. Niclosamide administration decreased transmembrane pH as determined by DiSC₃(5) assay indicating that the mechanism of action of the anti-H. pylori activity of niclosamide was the disruption of H. pylori proton motive force. Niclosamide was effective in the Galleria mellonella-H. pylori infection model (p = 0.0001) and it can be develop further to combat H. pylori infection. However, results need to be confirmed with other H. pylori and clinical strains.

Candida auris is an emerging healthcare-associated fungal pathogen that has become a serious global health threat. Current treatment options are limited due to drug resistance. New therapeutic strategies are required to target this organism and its pathogenicity. Plant polyphenols are structurally diverse compounds that present a vast range of biological properties. In the present study, plant-derived molecules ellagic acid (EA) and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) were investigated for their antifungal and antivirulence activities against Candida auris. We also tested against C. albicans. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for EA ranged from 0.125 to 0.25 µg/mL and for CAPE ranged from 1 to 64 µg/mL against drug-resistant C. auris strains. Killing kinetics determined that after 4 h treatment with CAPE, there was a complete reduction of viable C. auris cells compared to fluconazole. Both compounds might act by modifying the fungal cell wall. CAPE significantly reduced the biomass and the metabolic activity of C. auris biofilm and impaired C. auris adhesion to cultured human epithelial cells. Furthermore, both compounds prolonged the survival rate of Galleria mellonella infected by C. auris (p = 0.0088 for EA at 32 mg/kg and p = 0.0028 for CAPE at 4 mg/kg). In addition, EA at 4 μg/mL prolonged the survival of C. albicans-infected Caenorhabditis elegans (p < 0.0001). CAPE was not able to prolong the survival of C. albicans-infected C. elegans. These findings highlight the antifungal and antivirulence effects of EA and CAPE against C. auris, and warrant further investigation as novel antifungal agents against drug-resistant infections.

Piperine is a compound comprising 5-9% of black pepper (Piper nigrum), which has a variety of biological roles related to anticancer activities. Helicobacter pylori has been classified as a gastric carcinogen, because it causes gastritis and gastric cancer by injecting the virulent toxin CagA and translocating VacA. The present study investigated the inhibitory action of piperine on H. pylori growth and adhesion. Inhibition of H. pylori growth was determined by the broth macrodilution method, and adhesion to gastric adenocarcinoma cells validated by urease assay. Motility test was performed by motility agar and the expression of adhesion gene and flagellar gene in response to the piperine treatment was assessed by RT-PCR and immunoblotting. Administrated piperine suppressed the level of H. pylori adhesion to gastric adenocarcinoma cells in a dose dependent manner and the inhibition was statistically significant as determined by Student’s t-test. In addition, piperine treatment effects on the flagellar hook gene flgE and integral membrane component of the export apparatus gene flhA expression to be suppressed and piperine diminished the H. pylori motility. flhA, encodes an integral membrane component of the export apparatus, which is also one of the regulatory protein in the class 2 genes expression and flgE is one of them that encodes hook part of the flagella. Suppression of both genes, leads to less motility results in the organism attracted less towards to the gastric epithelial cells might be the possible reason in the adhesion inhibition. To our knowledge, this is the first report published on the inhibitory effects of piperine against the adhesion of H. pylori to gastric adenocarcinoma cells.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the leading causes of community and hospital acquired infections globally. The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence, study the carriage of antibiotic resistance genes and evaluate the molecular typing of S. aureus isolates from a tertiary care hospital in Islamabad. A total of 1528 staphylococci isolates were included in this study. Standard microbiological procedures were applied to identify S. aureus. Antimicrobial susceptability was evaluated using the disk diffusion method and Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) were determined using microbroth dilution method following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Multiplex PCR was used to detect antibiotic resistance genes, and molecular typing was performed using agr, SCCmec, spa, and Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) and clonal relatedness by Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) methods. Overall 65% were MRSA and 35% were methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Among MRSA isolates, 83% were multi-drug resistant and mecA was found in 54% isolates, mecC was in 3% while 1 MRSA carried both mecA and mecC genes. agrI (22%) was most prevalent group in MRSA, while agrIII (16%) was observed in MSSA. SCCmec types I, II, III, IV, and VI were detected, with high prevalence of type III while type V was absent. The prevelant spa type in MRSA was t657 with SCCmecIII elelments while in MSSA it was t021. One NEW spa type identified in MSSA isolates. In a subset of isolates, ST772 with SCCmecIV, ST1 carrying PVL marker, and ST1535 was reported first time from Pakistan. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of prevalent S. aureus types and their antibiotic resistance profiles. It also reports for the first time SCCmec type VI and clinical MRSA isolates with mecC alone and in combination with mecA from Islamabad, Pakistan. This calls for further detailed investigations in other hospital settings in the region.